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BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



THE YOUNG MECHANIC. 

Containing directions for the Use of all kinds of 
Tools, and for the Construction of Steam Engines 
and Mechanical Models. Fully illustrated. 
Cloth, extra, $1.75. 

" This is a work of greater practical value than many 
more pretentious works, and, although prepared for the instruc- 
tion of boys mechanically inclined, will profit by its perusal 
many a full-grown artisan." — American Artisan. 

" The book is all that can be desired — one of the few for 
which we can't say too much." — N. Y. Evening Mail. 

"We know of no work of the kind which so well fulfills its 
purpose." — Albany Journal. 

" * * * The woik is a fascinating one for all who have 
any mechanical taste or talent." — Boston Transcript. 

" The work is full of drawings and illustrations, and any 
boy having a taste for mechanics can get all the information 
he needs to set himself at work." — Providence Press. 



AMONGST MACHINES 



DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS MECHANICAL APPLIANCES 

USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOD, METAL, 

AND OTHER SUBSTANCES. 

& Book for Bogs 
COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED 



1 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 



"THE YOUNG MECHANIC" 



NEW YORK 
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

182 Fifth Avenup 







M^ , 



Preface. 




OME time has now elapsed since the puhlication 
of " The Young Mechanic," but when that book 
was issued, it was intended to supplement 
it by some such volume as that now placed 
before our young friends. Although designed and espe- 
cially written for the perusal of boys, it is possible 
that it may convey interest and instruction to some of 
maturer years, as all ought to have some knowledge of 
the processes and means used in the production of articles 
of daily use. " How was it made ? " seems a very 
natural question for one to ask who takes up any 
production of our various industries, and it is for 
the purpose of giving a reply to such a query that we 
have penned the present volume. Of course, in a small, 
and of necessity somewhat sketchy book like the present, 
there is much remaining untold which would be full of 



iv PREFACE. 



interest to the reader ; but, so far as our limits would 
allow, we have endeavoured to give sufficient detail to 
make each subject treated clear and easy of apprehension. 
Of some machines and processes we have written at full 
length; of others we have laid down the principle of 
construction, as being common to many others of the 
same class, and have not described the actual details of 
any one in particular. Thus we have endeavoured to 
instruct the reader in those fundamental laws which of 
necessity underlie the system of machinery, and .upon 
which are founded the various mechanical combinations 
yvhich have contributed so much to the development of 
our manufactures. Very many hand processes which pre- 
vailed only a few years ago, are fast disappearing in 
spite of prejudice and vested interests, which make the 
introduction of machine-work so hazardous and specula- 
tive to the manufacturer ; and as the demand for certain 
necessaries of civilised life, once confined to the richer 
classes, is now extending more widely every day, it 
becomes absolutely necessary to use mechanical appliances 
to increase as well as to cheapen the supply by hastening 
the various processes of production. Thus from year to 
year we meet with new machines or improvements upon 



PREFACE. 



those already in use, and there is good reason to suppose 
that the increased wages now demanded by labourers of 
all classes will call into action more than ever the 
inventive faculty and energy of our manufacturers and 
employers. Hence it has appeared to us a very fit time 
to instruct the younger portion of the community in the 
details of the more ordinary machines, with which they 
may perhaps some day become closely and personally in- 
terested. Those used for the production of textile fabrics, 
however, we have been unable to treat of in the present 
volume, as they need more space than we have at 
our command, as well as a large number of draw- 
ings to make the details of their construction clear. 
Possibly this may occupy our attention at some future 
time, but for the present we can only hope that the 
book now in the reader's hands may prove useful and 
interesting, and make our boys thirst for further infor- 
mation, which ought, we consider, to be the effect of all 
such outlines of instruction as these little volumes are 

intended to impart. 

J. L. 

Stetchworth, July 1876. 




Content?. 



PAGB 
INTRODUCTORY 1 

I. HUMAN TOIL ......... 14 

II. IRON 29 

III. TILTING AND ROLLING 43 

IV. WIRE-DRAWING ......... 62 

Y. BRASS TUBES 76 

VI. MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS 91 

VII. MECHANICAL POWERS 107 

VIII. APPLICATION OP MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS . . .123 

IX. OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS 137 

X. VARIOUS MANUFACTURES — STEEL PENS • • . .154 

XI. PINS 168 

XII. HAIR-PINS .......... 178 

XIII. SHEET-METAL GOODS 190 



yffi CONTENTS. 

CHAP. PAGH 

XIV. SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS 197 

XV. MACHINES FOR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD . . ,216 

XVI. PAPER-MAKING MACHINES, ETC 242 

XVII. GLASS-MAKING . 275 

XVIII. SCIENTIFIC MACHINES ..,..•. 294 

XIX. THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL . . . . , 318 




AMONGST MACHINES. 



Introductory. 

" De gustibus non disputandura. ' 
" Chacun a son gotit." 




OW, boys, out with your dictionaries, if you need 
them, and translate the above mottoes of an 
U old friend, who has made up his mind to write 
another little volume for your special delecta- 
tion. In my last I told you " how to make;" I now 
propose to tell you what others have made, and what, in 
fact, they are making every day, for the use of their fellow- 
creatures. Accustomed as we are in these days to the 
luxuries of life, we have little idea that a very few years 
ago these luxuries were almost unknown, and that what 
we should now designate the necessaries of life, our 
ancestors would have rather despised as effeminate indul- 
gences, unworthy of their attention. How we should cry 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



out at floors without carpets, and even without boards, 
thinly strewed with a covering of fresh rushes, cut amid 
the swamps and marshes ; yet time was when these 
constituted the carpets of princes and kings alone, and, 
even in palaces, were not unfrequently found wanting, 
except in the state apartments. And as to soft feather 
beds and spring mattresses, and luxurious pillows, 
arranged upon luxurious and handsome bedsteads, it was 
not even in the power of the rich to obtain them. As 
for the poor, a heap of straw, or of leaves, not always too 
fresh or too dry, formed the only resting-place after days 
of labour such as are now happily unknown. The truth 
is, we have during the last fifty years made such gigantic 
strides in civilisation that each class has stepped into 
the position of those above them. The smock-frock and 
humble gig of the thriving farmer have given place to the 
fashionable suit and waggonette ; the old-fashioned plain 
tradesman has become " Esquire ; " and the stage-coach, 
with its well-bred team of roadsters, has disappeared 
before that snorting iron steed that was once known, when 
a comparative colt, as Stephenson's " Puffing Billy." In 
1830, steam locomotion was in its infancy; in 1875, it 
has, we may fairly say, wellnigh reached its climax, 
and in all probability the engine as it now stands will 
not undergo any material alteration, although it is to be 
hoped that railway management will mightily improve, 



INTRODUCTORY. 



and means be provided for increasing both the comfort 
and safety of travellers. It is to the general introduction 
of steam-machinery that we are, indeed, indebted for the 
rapid advance and improvement of all nations into which 
it has penetrated. The native Hindoo may seem to beat 
us in the fineness of his textile fabrics ; and the hand- 
looms of the East may send forth rugs and carpets which 
ravish the eye with their rich and harmonious colours, 
but the quantity thus produced is utterly insignificant ; 
and hence these costly and tedious results of native skill 
can never come into general use, nor compete with the 
products of our steam-looms and gigantic carpet manu- 
factories. Then, again, look at our works in metal. 
Here we have absolutely first created a want, and then 
devised the means of supplying it. What did our 
ancestors require in the way of writing materials ? Not 
one in ten could write their own names fifty or sixty 
years ago, and a few quills plucked annually from the 
wretched geese in the Lincolnshire fens amply sufficed 
the needs of the last generation. Now we think nothing 
of rolling a few hundred tons of steel into a few thousand 
gross of steel pens ; yet, so vast and ceaseless is the 
demand, that every day, and all day long, does the un- 
relenting machinery groan and toil at its heavy task. 
At times it appears as if every possible requirement of 
humanity must needs be satisfied. " Having food and 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



clothing, " it would be imagined that we might "be con- 
tent ; " but all at once a new demand arises, we hardly 
know how, and as it increases, it brings other requirements 
in its train ; and new machines are planned, and new 
and gigantic manufactures spring up, until people begin 
to wonder how it was possible to live and be happy 
without that particular article which, from being absolutely 
unknown and undesired, has at last become one of the 
necessaries of civilised life. Well do I remember, when 
a boy myself, the eightpenny letter, that had come but 
forty miles at most, brought in one of what then appeared 
plethoric bags carried by the yenerable mail-coach — 
precious letter, indeed, in those days of high postal rates, 
when these delightful home messages were, like angel 
visits, few and far between. Then we thought forty and 
fifty miles a day u very fair journey for letters or for 
ourselves, and the London " Optimus," or " Highflyer," 
or " Express," was in our admiring eyes the beau ideal 
of rapid locomotion ; yet even then these "old things 
were passing away," and by the time our jackets had 
been supplanted by the much-longed-for tailcoats, and 
the turn-down collars had given place to " stick ups " 
and cravats (which, by the way, were well denominated 
" chokers"), stage-coaches and mails were on their 
last legs, and visions were beginning to arise of iron 
horses and fast trains, cheap postage and electric tele- 



INTROD UCTOR Y. 



graphs. Now the vision is realised, and we can only ask, 
" What is to come next?" The strangest fact connected 
with all this is the suddenness with which a new manu- 
facture or industry springs up. When a thing actually 
exists as an everyday article of traffic, the popular mind 
seldom busies itself with the question of " how it came 
to pass ; " there it is, and its presence is accepted as un 
fait accompli, Not so the thoughtful looker-on. A 
few years ago an industry existed in Manchester which is 
already on the wane. Thousands of tons of steel were 
being rapidly converted into long, flat, ribbon-like strips 
of varied width, but otherwise wonderfully alike. Coil 
upon coil was rolled out and tempered, and packed for 
home consumption and for export. It was crinoline steel 
for our wives and daughters ! Fashion had decreed 
that the Elizabethan pattern should revive ; and all at 
once, as it seemed, the new demand was met and 
satisfied, and more than one large fortune was made 
in carrying out this new and unlooked-for manufacture. 
But some one discovered that the steel cut through the 
fabric in which it was inserted, in spite of the care taken 
to obliterate the sharpness of its edges. At once manu- 
facturing enterprise was turned in the new direction, and 
I know of one at least who realised a fortune by the 
invention of a machine for covering steel ribbons with a 
woven sheath of wool or cotton. In neither case was 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



the manufacture itself absolutely new, but it gave a new 
direction to, and created special modifications of, old in- 
ventions, and thus practically resulted in new and exten- 
sive industrial pursuits. It is in this way that there is 
a constant market for labour. One manufacture dies out 
when its products are no longer suitable to the peculiar 
demands of the times, and hundreds of hands, it would 
be supposed, must be thrown out of work ; but instead 
of this, some real or imaginary want, or some unlooked- 
for fashion or custom, arises, and as one manufacture is 
gradually withdrawn, another takes its place, and needs 
the hands or the brains that would otherwise have been 
driven to forced idleness. It is most astonishing to mark 
the even poise of the scales between demand and supply, 
which again in turn regulates the market price of each 
commodity ; and although it must now and then happen 
that individual hardship occurs, and from some unlooked- 
for and unexpected stagnation in trade, hands are thrown 
out of work who do not deserve that fate, it generally 
happens that there is a fair field of labour, and fair 
remuneration, for those who have the necessary qualifica- 
tions of honesty and diligence. Most certainly these 
are days in which both the literal " slow-coach " and its 
moral representative have no place ; even the stanch 
old Tory finds himself dragged unwillingly along, until 
he generally lands at least among the ranks of Liberal 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. 



Conservatism, if lie does not go yet one little step farther ; 
and both nations and people (even lethargic John Bull) 
find sometimes that they have taken a pretty long march 
before they were aware of it. Our go-ahead cousins, 
perhaps, have done not a little to wake us up in this re- 
spect. A vast number of improvements in our various 
industries hail from America, and for machinery to ex- 
pedite certain manufactures there can be no question 
that we are considerably indebted to the cousins aforesaid. 
Probably we are more fettered by our patent laws than 
we are fully aware of. No man can realise the fruit of 
his head and hand work in England without very heavy 
expense, to which he is most probably quite unequal. 
Knowing this, many really clever workmen are afraid to 
turn their attention to the production of novel machines. 
They consider that the offspring of their own heavily- 
worked brains will only enrich others and impoverish 
themselves, and thus the very laws which ought to stimu- 
late and encourage inventions do, in fact, restrain the 
exercise of talent and industry, and cramp and fetter 
mechanical craftsmen. The necessary result of this im- 
perfection of our patent laws is, that other nations give 
us the go by, crib our inventions, and sell them back to 
us at a very considerable profit. As I am, however, 
addressing my old friends " the boys," I think it may 
be well to explain the nature of a patent, although I am 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



well aware that many of my readers are " up," as they 
say, " in that kind of thing," and know already some- 
thing about patents. Well, all I can say is, if some 
do, some do not; so here goes, all the same, and the wiser 
and more knowing may skip the paragraph if they 
please. 

Perhaps, as I sit over the fire thinking of things in 
general and mechanics in particular, a bright idea strikes 
me. Perhaps it is a machine for grinding up moons to 
make stars, or grinding up old people and making them 
into small boys ; of course the idea is grand — it is noble 
— it is wonderful ! it will make me a millionaire ! and I 
begin to build castles, keep carriages, and become a man 
very mighty in my generation ! That night I get no 
sleep, or if I do, visions of little old men and big old 
men greet me, popping head foremost into a huge coffee- 
mill, and coming out young rascals in jackets and knicker- 
bockers. At early dawn I rise unrefreshed, seize pencil 
and compasses and ruler, and proceed to develop on 
paper the gigantic invention of my enlightened brain. 
Now, some ideas look very well as long as they are not 
thus delineated in cruel unrelenting black and white, and 
some will stand even this ordeal. Of course my grand 
mill will look really splendid on paper ; so I make the 
rough sketch of its hopper, and stones, and bone-crushers, 
and sifters, and renovators ; and then I draw them with 



INTRODUCTORY. 



rule and compass, and ink them in, and it is done — triumph 
of brain over matter — and I must get a patent. 

Searching the columns of the newspaper, I see the very 
advertisement I require, " Patents for inventions obtained, 
and successful sale ensured. Address Diddle-um & Do-em, 
Vanity Fair, near the Library of the Hocus-pocus and 
Gammon Institute." I cannot trust my precious invention 
to the custody of H.M. Post Office officials, I am off to 
London with my drawing in hand. I find the local 
habitation and name of the agents, and am introduced 
to the gentlemen themselves, who at once declare the 
thing perfect in all its details, request £10 or so on 
account, to secure the provisional protection or registra- 
tion, which will secure the invention for a few weeks and 
prevent others from pirating it; and at length I depart 
full of hope by the evening train, and having duly arrived, 
add several more decorations and luxuries to my aerial 
castle. After some days I receive a note from the 
agents, " they have searched the records at the Patent 
Office, and have to congratulate me on the fact that no 
specification of such a machine as mine can be found ; 
the very idea is novel, the details perfection, and strongly 
they would advise proceeding at as early a date as possible 
to complete the patent." This costs £100, with perhaps 
a few fees for search at the Patent Office, coloured drawings, 
stamps, and similar requisites. In the meantime the 



i o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

invention is advertised, and I see my name in print as 
about to " proceed." I do proceed, and am opposed by 
another inventor who thinks or pretends to think he has 
forestalled me ; of course litigation means more fees, but 
at last I triumph, and am duly acknowledged real and sole 
inventor and proprietor of the " Human Grinder.' ' Now 
for results. No one will buy it from me. No manu- 
facturer will undertake its construction and become my 
agent for its sale except at a price that will certainly 
remunerate him, but will never reimburse me the outlay 
already made; and, stranger still, though I have one made 
and placed in my own hall for inspection, not one old 
man — no, not even the oldest and most " faithful retainer " 
of the family — can be induced to take a header for the 
satisfaction of an inquiring but sceptical public. The 
whole concern has fallen flat upon the market, and I 
am left alone in my glory, pockets considerably lighter, 
heart so much heavier that I am almost tempted to take 
a header myself into the mill. Alas, boys ! the climax is 
yet to come. My old addle-headed neighbour, taking the 
hint, but carefully avoiding the details of my machine, 
cribs the whole concern, reaps the produce of my sleepless 
nights and overworked brain, produces a precisely similar 
but not identical machine, patents it, grants licences to 
manufacture and use it, is eminently successful, amasses 
a fortune, and dies Sir Noodleton Addlehead. As for me, 



INTR OD UCTOR K 1 1 

I cut rny — no, boys, not my throat just at present, but 
my " stick," and retire to a remote village to growl out 
my span of existence ingloriously. I do write sundrj 
letters to the " Times " on the injustice of the patent 
law, which somehow or other fall into the editor's waste- 
paper basket. By this, boys, you see that the object of a 
patent is to secure all profits to an inventor for seven, ten, 
or fourteen years ; the result of a patent is very frequently 
to impoverish the inventor and to enrich his neighbour. 
Now, if instead of this very heavy outlay, which of course 
always involves a risk of failure, an inventor could secure 
his patent for a pound or two, and be fairly certain that 
he would enjoy the proceeds of it, inventive faculty, even 
amongst our mechanical boys, would be considerably 
stimulated, and the regular workman would be encouraged 
to plan and contrive improvements which would first 
benefit himself, and next, in many instances, confer lasting 
benefit on his country. ' It is true that the Patent Office 
contains records of inventions quite as ridiculous and 
unmarketable as my imaginary human grinder, inventions 
which deserve their fate ; but there are also many really 
clever and valuable discoveries utterly prevented from 
full development because the discoverers cannot find the 
funds to secure the patent, and do not choose to give 
away the creations of their own brains. It often happens, 
however, that some chance hint to a friend (?) better 



1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

provided with capital, or more happily situated, is seized, 
worked out, and made the subject of a successful patent, 
while the original inventor is obliged to plod along as 
before, unrecognised and unrewarded. It would not, 
perhaps, be very difficult for me to name more than one 
owner of a grand estate who has made a name and en- 
riched his family by stealing the invention of the hard- 
worked and industrious mechanic. No one probably steps 
in to defend the right, and we all know how riches and 
power are wont to hush all inquiry as to how tbey have 
been gained. I speak of these things, my boys, on 
purpose to create in you a proper sense of justice, and 
to induce you to befriend the working men of your time. 
If fortune has or shall hereafter favour you, never 
think it a disgrace to take hold of that rough and 
sinewy right hand by whose work you obtain the various 
necessaries or luxuries of life ; and if any of you live to 
become employers of labour, be careful to render to every 
one his due. Often among those hard sons of toil you 
will find the most noble Christian feelings, and often 
keen and active intelligence where you least suspect it. 
Unfortunately of late there has existed among labourers 
of all kinds a sense of injustice which has estranged them 
from their masters. The latter are not, however, always, 
nor perhaps generally in fault ; yet in too many instances 
there has been real cause for complaint ; and ill-feeling 



INTRODUCTORY. 13 

once aroused, and fostered and kept up by unprincipled 
agitators (whose real object is to enrich themselves), 
has created a breach that it will require many years 
to stop. You, my boys, must be foremost to step into 
that breach when you come to manhood; and by your 
plucky defence of the right, and even-handed justice, 
you may do much to restore the good feeling and mutual 
dependence that once existed between the employers and 
the employed. 




Chapter I. 



HUMAN TOIL. 





EPS 



ABOUR and sorrow, toil and death, constitute 
the curse which has hung like a dark shadow 
over our world for about six thousand years. 
We know why that curse descended, and most 
of you, boys, know it too, and have in some degree par- 
taken of it. But probably it has never struck you that 
the civilisation in which we pride ourselves — our arts and 
manufactures, our railways and telegraphs, and machinery 
of various kinds — is but the evidence of that curse, 
inasmuch as by these man is ever trying to lighten his 
labour and alleviate his toil. The muscles and sinews 
of the human frame soon grow weary, and yet our labour 
must not cease. Food and clothing are demanded by 
our frail and perishable bodies, and these wants must be 
supplied ; and so the clever brain comes to the rescue, 
and devises, perpetually, new and improved modes of 
producing what we so urgently require — increasing and 
varying the manifold industries, by which the progress of 



HUMAN WANTS. 15 



civilisation is ever marked. In the earlier ages of the 
world, man's wants were but few, especially while only 
the warmer regions of the earth were tenanted by the 
human race, and a redundant tropical vegetation made 
toil and labour a name rather than a reality. 

The dispersion, however, that after the Flood com- 
menced at Babel, soon compelled mankind to make for them- 
selves homes in less genial countries, and to exert both mind 
and body to a much greater extent, in order to provide 
for the necessities of daily life. It is not necessary to 
trace man's progress from a condition of rude barbarism 
to a state of comparative civilisation, nor need we inquire 
at what date the " coats of skins," which at first sufficed 
for clothing, gave place to plaited or roughly-woven 
garments, of which we have specimens now existing 
among savage tribes of Indians and others. We may 
leap at once the intervening gulf of centuries, and speak 
of the arts and manufactures of later days. 

We may, nevertheless, pause to note the fact that man, 
as suggested in our introductory chapter, creates his 
own wants, until what was once a luxury of life becomes 
a necessity ', and what was at one time found only in 
" kings' houses " is demanded even in the cottages of 
the poor. It seems, in fact, less likely year by year that 
the time will come when we shall carry out with one 
accord the Apostolic maxim, li Having food and clothing, 



16 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

let us be therewith content." It has, indeed, of late been 
a sore puzzle to the lawyers to decide, as they are some- 
times called upon to do, what are to be considered the 
luxuries of life, and what the necessaries. Ee turning, 
however, to the primitive condition of mankind, we 
cannot be far wrong in considering food and clothing 
so absolutely necessary to his very existence that he 
must be a 'cute lawyer, indeed, who would venture to dis- 
pute the fact. 

Now, simple as these are in themselves, neither would 
have been gained by sitting still. The fruits of earth 
must be obtained by culture ; the flesh given to man for 
food must be procured by hunting; and then the food 
must be prepared in utensils more or less suited to the 
purpose. We therefore soon meet with other neces- 
sities — tools for the cultivation of the land, weapons for 
the chase, and means of cooking the food thus obtained. 

The Book of Genesis, therefore, introduces us to such 
things at a very early date, and in the story there told 
us of the death of Isaac, we have mention not only of 
the quiver and the bow as ordinarily used for hunt- 
ing, but also of venison made into savoury meat, be- 
tokening, at all events, a certain refinement in cooking 
to which the Patriarch was no stranger. At the same 
period we gather the fact that a clothing of the skins of 
wild beasts had been discarded for a lighter and more 



H UMAN INVENTIONS. 1 7 

convenient, as well as a more ornamental character of 
garment, Joseph's coat of many colours being, there is 
little doubt, made of some kind of woven material ; and 
in the Book of Job, which some have supposed the oldest 
of all the sacred writings, the " weaver's shuttle " is 
mentioned as an article with which his readers or hearers 
were generally conversant. Implements and machines, 
more or less rude, but sufficing for the requirements of 
the times, were therefore almost of necessity invented as 
soon as labour and toil were universally acknowledged 
to be the lot of man. 

Vessels to contain water, and even to enable it to be 
boiled, as would soon be discovered, were provided by 
nature in the gourd and cocoa-nut, to which were added, 
as a more capacious reservoir, the skins of animals care- 
fully removed from their carcases, and the various open- 
ings closed by tying or sewing. But these had at a 
very early date — partially, at all events — given way to 
articles of metal, so that we read of Tubal Cain some 
years before the Flood as a skilful artificer in brass and 
iron. These casual remarks of the sacred writers re- 
ferring to the arts of civilisation, prove how very soon 
man, left to his own devices, learned to turn to his own 
use, for the purpose of increasing his comforts, the 
various mineral, animal, and vegetable products of the 
world around him. In carrying out the several processes 



1 8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

demanded for these purposes, he must have rapidly dis- 
covered the more prominent peculiarities of the materials 
placed in his hands, and we can but admire the talent 
which our progenitors evinced in overcoming such stu- 
pendous difficulties as smelting ores and refining the 
metals so obtained. From what we have been enabled 
to gather from native handicraft as still pursued in 
India and other Eastern nations, it would seem that 
the earliest works of the kind were produced by casting 
and by the use of the hammer. The heat of the fire 
was kept up by a pair of bellows made of goat or other 
skins, a wooden or cane pipe being inserted into one 
of the legs to act as a blowpipe or tuyere. By these 
simple means much elaborate work is still done by the 
native artisans. 

To show, in fact, what simple means will in skilful 
hands produce satisfactory results we will copy from 
an old cyclopaedia * the description of a furnace or 
forge used by silversmiths and native blacksmiths in 
the island of Ceylon. For gold and silver, which require 
less heat than iron, the native artists require a low 
earthen pot full of chaff and sawdust, in which they 
make a little charcoal fire ; a small bamboo blowpipe, 
with which they excite the fire; a short earthen tube 
or nozzle, the extremity of which is placed at the bottom 

* Luke Hebert's Cyclopaedia. 



CEYLON JEWELLER'S TOOLS. 



19 



of the fire, and through which passes the stream of air 
from the blowpipe ; two or three small crucibles made 
of the fine clay procured from ant-hills ; a pair of light 
tongs, an anvil, two or three small hammers, and a file ; 
and to conclude the list, a few small bars of iron or brass 
about two inches long, and differently pointed for different 
kinds of work. The drawings delineate these as com- 
monly made and used (fig. 1). 




Fig. 1. —Tools used by native Jewellers of Ceylon. 

It is astonishing, says the writer, what an intense little 
tire, more than sufficiently strong to melt gold and silver, 
can be kindled in a few minutes. The success of this 
little forge depends a good deal in the bed of the fire 
being composed of a combustible material, yet a bad 
conductor of heat. The blacksmiths of Ceylon require 
a larger forge, producing greater heat, of which Hg. 2 
is a sketch. 



20 



AMONGST MACHINES, 



The two smiths work as here shown, one at the bellows 
of bullocks' hides, the other at the iron. The bellows are 
curiously made, and we should suppose them utterly 
inefficient. The nozzle of each is of bamboo, and so 
far would be likely enough to answer the purpose re- 




Fig. 2.— Ceylon Blacksmith's Forge. 

quired ; but instead of such a valve as may be seen 
in the lower board of a pair of house bellows, which is 
contrived to allow the wind to enter but not to escape, 
there is a long slit in each bag, to the edges of which a 
strip of wood is attached, forming a pair of wooden lips, 



CE YLON BLA CKSMITH'S FORGE. 1 1 

which are separated a little way by the hands of the 
workman as he raises the bag, and are closed again as 
he presses it down to force out the wind. To an English- 
man the tedium, not to say difficulty, of thus keeping up 
the blast by the action of these rude bellows, one on each 
side, as he sits on the ground, would be unendurable ; yet 
these natives work away hour after hour, singing at their 
monotonous task, and turn out work of a very creditable 
character in spite of these inefficient contrivances, which 
were probably used in almost the same way by Tubal Cain 
himself; for, it may be remarked, there is a great re- 
luctance in the native character to take advantage of the 
superior mode of work introduced to their notice by 
foreign settlers. The old plan has stood for centuries, 
and probably will be pursued for many centuries yet to 
come. 

The use of charcoal in these native forges renders the 
iron of a superior quality, and were it more readily 
obtainable, we should find it more universally used in 
England. Coal is nearly always contaminated with 
sulphur, and this, laying hold of the heated metal, forms 
with it a brittle compound which boys versed in chem- 
istry are acquainted with under the name of sulphuret 
or sulphide of iron. When, therefore, very superior metal 
is required that shall possess such toughness and duc- 
tility as will fit it for boiler plates, wire, and similar 



2 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

purposes, the quality called charcoal iron, in which char- 
coal has been the fuel used to smelt it, or at any rate to 
refine it, is always used. It has also been observed that 
iron produced in those countries where appliances for 
smelting and working it are of a rude and primitive 
kind, is always superior to that manufactured where these 
requisites are accessible. Probably this is due not only 
to the use of charcoal instead of coal, but to the fact that 
the native workman requires comparatively small quan- 
tities of the metal, and cares little about the time he 
may have to consume in the various operations. He 
works, therefore, with the utmost deliberation, and ex- 
pends on his productions an amount of manual labour 
which no machinery can rival in quality, though as 
regards quantity no comparison can exist between the 
two. 

The smel ting-furnace used by the Cingalese, as the 
natives of Ceylon are called, is not very dissimilar to that 
used by ourselves ; it is, however, infinitely smaller, 
more like a large crucible, and the fire is urged by a pair 
of primitive bellows worked alternately by the feet. In 
a small way, indeed, our readers may effect the fusion of 
iron-ore by way of experiment for themselves, making use 
of a neat furnace of blacklead like fig. 3. 

This may be had of any manufacturer of chemical appa- 
ratus for ten or twelve shillings, and will be often found 



BLACKLEAD FURNACE. 



23 



useful in experimenting upon metals. The hole at the side 
of the bottom part or stand is for the introduction of the 
nozzle of a pair of bellows ; the blast of air then passes 
upwards through several holes in the bottom of the 
middle part or body of the furnace, in which is a little 
block of plumbago or blacklead, on which the crucible is 




Fig. 3. — Blacklead Furnace (Aikin). 



placed. The fuel is charcoal and coke, in small pieces about 
the size of walnuts, and is packed to about three-quarters 
the whole depth of the furnace, a few pieces of lighted 
charcoal being first placed at the bottom; the conical 
cover is then placed on, and upon the application of the 
bellows a very intense heat is quickly attained, A little 



24 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

lime is generally added as a flux, and the metal has to 
be remelted to refine it. 

This process, however, is of course only on a very small 
scale, and is chiefly introduced to show the trade opera- 
tion in miniature. It is used in practice merely to test 
the percentage of iron in any given sample of ironstone, 
which may, however, be done by the practised hand with 
the still more miniature appliances of a lamp, blowpipe, 
and piece of charcoal, a bit of pumice-stone serving as a 
crucible, or to represent the walls of the furnace. The 
operation of preparing iron for use, as practised in our 
own country, consists of first smelting the ore in huge 
furnaces, which are kept alight for years together ; refin- 
ing the metal which runs from these furnaces by remelting 
it ; transferring this to the puddling- furnace, where it is 
stirred about at an intense heat until by a natural 
chemical action it takes the form of tough balls com- 
parable to dough ; passing these under a tilt-hammer, 
and then between huge rollers, by which the fibres are 
elongated and the mass becomes malleable; and thus 
forming it into bars or sheets of any desired thickness 
fit for the several purposes to which it is to be sub- 
sequently put by the manufacturers. 

A visit to the " Black Country," as the whole region 
devoted to the iron manufacture is called, especially if the 
traveller arrives at night, is one that makes upon the 



" THE BLACK COUNTRY:' 25 



mind an impression not easily effaced. It will certainly- 
put our boys in mind of the infernal regions described by 
classic poets, in which Vulcan labours at the thunderbolts 
of Jupiter, and fashions the armour of the immortal gods. 
The whole country appears to be on fire — hill and dale 
alike glare with the light of innumerable furnaces, 
rendering more black and forbidding the smoke and coal- 
begrimed intervals where no vegetation can grow to vary 
the scene of desolation. The whole district is like a vast 
cinder-heap, and the swarthy and sinewy workmen who 
by day and night preside over the seething furnaces and 
their adjacent mills might well be descendants of the 
Cyclopean giants, who were the fabled pioneers of this 
particular industry. To strangers especially these men 
show a roughness of demeanour by no means inviting ; they 
dislike interference or interrogation, but are nevertheless 
by no means the savages they are sometimes represented to 
be. Their work, it must be remembered, is excessively 
heavy, and they have but little time to spend in learning 
the mere refinements of more civilised society. Beneath 
this rough exterior warm and affectionate natures are by 
no means rare, and when once these men admit you to 
their confidence, you will find in them an intelligence, 
and not seldom an amount of knowledge, you would 
never have expected to meet with. 

To those boys who reside upon such scenes, or who have 



26 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

special facilities for paying them visits, the present little 
work will, it is hoped, prove of use by giving them a greater 
and more intelligent interest in the manufactures there 
taking place. To those who from various causes are 
prohibited from personal inspection, our brief notices of 
" how things are made" ought to prove not less valuable. 
Machinery and processes which they cannot examine for 
themselves must needs be brought before them through 
the medium of such books as the writer now offers to 
them, and as they peruse its pages we fancy they will be 
themselves surprised to discover how many articles of 
daily use have hitherto escaped their close attention, which 
nevertheless demand in their construction a great amount 
of ingenuity and manufacturing skill. Even where we 
may omit the notice of a particular manufactured article, 
we hope to arouse inquiry respecting its construction, 
for such inquiry bespeaks an inquisitiveness worthy of 
all possible encouragement ; it shows that our boys are 
not content to take and to use things as they find them, 
but to exercise the mind and enlarge the intellect. Both 
natural and artificial productions — the raw material and 
the finished article — are sure to be worthy of examination 
and study; for the works of man, which have resulted 
from the lawful use of the intellect given to him by God, 
are more or less a reflex of the still mightier works which 
that God presents to his view. 



LAB ORATOR Y OF NATURE. 27 



All our work is, in fact, first prepared in the great 
laboratory of nature. There for endless ages have the 
combined forces of heat and electricity, and " the light of 
the sun bottled up," as one of our greatest engineers 
expressed it, been manufacturing, for man's use, both the 
ironstone and the coal, the copper, the tin, or the precious 
metals ; the fireclay for our furnaces, the fine earth for 
the use of the potter, the limestone for a flux, the salt for 
a glaze, and the many other raw materials upon which 
man is called to exercise his skill. Whenever the exigen- 
cies of life have created a want, or the fashions of society 
a luxury, the needful supply of the material has been 
found, and suitable means for its economic manufacture ; 
and the greater the demand for any particular article at 
home or abroad, the more cheaply can it usually be 
supplied. Productions which are mere waste in one 
manufacture soon become necessary in another, and that 
which yesterday was allowed to rot as refuse, to-day 
becomes a marketable commodity of special and peculiar 
value. Thus our manufacturing industries are constantly 
on the increase, and remunerative employment is found 
for the ever-increasing population, who depend for the 
very necessaries of life upon this continual springing up 
of new demands. 

As iron, though not considered one of the noble metals, 
is nevertheless so far the chief that it could be less easily 



28 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



dispensed with than even silver and gold, we shall enter 
into more details of its manufacture that we have given 
in our preliminary sketch, as many of our boys have 
probably no idea of the many processes required before it 
can be brought to their notice as some well-recognised 
article of daily use. 




Chapter II. 



IRON. 




HIS substance has been occasionally found as a 
metal more or less pure, but more generally in 
the form of ironstone or iron-ore, in which the 
metal is combined with several substances 
requiring to be separated from it. A lump of ironstone 
would appear to a casual beholder like a heavy pebble ; 
and many a boy would think nothing of shying it away 
at any object that might offer itself as a mark, without 
a moment's consideration, and certainly without any sus- 
picion of its real value. 

The reader must not suppose that this iron-ore is always 
alike, or that there is but one quality ; and it may seem 
at first strange that the greater part of that which is 
worked in England is comparatively poor in the quantity 
of metal which it contains. This is the argillaceous 
(clayey) ironstone, in which the metal is mixed with 



3 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

clay, lime, magnesia, and sometimes with bitumen, when 
it bears the name of " black-band," and is of better 
quality. This is a carbonate of iron, carbon being 
chemically associated with it. 

The reason that this kind of ironstone is so largely used 
is that it occurs in vast quantities in the Coal Measures of 
England, Providence having placed side by side the ore and 
the material required for smelting it. The richest in metal 
is the ore called magnetite — the magnetic oxide of iron — 
next to which is red haematite, and then brown haematite. 
These occur chiefly in Sweden, but also in great quantities 
in different parts of England. Here again, as notably 
in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, the coal (and 
timber for charcoal) is close at hand, which has of course 
in a great degree determined the chief localities of the 
iron manufacture. Unless the ore is particularly pure, 
it is first of all roasted, either by laying it in heaps with 
the necessary fuel in the open air, or in special furnaces. 
By this some of the grosser impurities are got rid of, 
and the moisture is driven off, by which means the iron- 
stone is prepared for the operation of smelting. This is 
done in a special furnace of large size, of which groups 
are seen like flaming watch-towers in all parts of the 
Black Country. Such a furnace is sketched in fig. 4. 

It consists of a conical brick tower (or stone, if more 
readily accessible) very strongly put together, and fre- 



IRON. 3I 



tj lently strengthened with iron bonds or hoops, because 
the weight of the ore, lime, and fuel is very great, and if 
a furnace should give way, it would probably involve the 
lo&s of life, besides an enormous sum of money. 



Fig. 4.— Iron Smelting-Furnace. 



The furnace is generally built on the side of a hill, for 
the convenience of arranging from the latter a tramway 
by which to bring up the ironstone in trucks constructed 
for the purpose. Sometimes, however, it rises from a level, 



3 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

and each of the trucks is raised by a " lift " to a platform 
above, on a level with the top of the furnace ; for the 
ore is thrown in at the top, with the fuel and limestone, 
and gradually sinks down from the cooler to the hotter 
part, arrived at which the metal flows off in a stream 
when the furnace is " tapped," once in about every twelve 
hours. The furnace is not wholly of stone or ordinary 
brick, the latter forming only its exterior. These materials 
would be wholly insufficient to withstand the intense heat. 
Inside the outer case, therefore, is first a lining of sand, 
then an inner one of firebrick, the latter being made 
of a peculiarly infusible clay found in Staffordshire, 
Leeds, Glasgow, and in nearly all those places producing 
coal — another instance of the way in which Providence 
has grouped those substances which our manufactures 
require to be used together. In the section given here 
of a smel ting-furnace these different linings are distinctly 
indicated. The inner turret or chimney, with a door in 
the side for the introduction of the several materials, is 
merely added as a protection to the workmen from the 
flaming gases which emerge from the summit, the balus- 
trade also serving to prevent accidents. Very many 
contrivances have, however, been devised for preventing 
the necessity of ascending the tower or furnace, as, 
for instance, iron trucks made to ascend an inclined 
plane by being attached to an endless chain, and so 



IRON. 33 



arranged as to tip and discharge their contents when 
arrived at the top of the furnace. It may, in fact, be 
easily perceived that a good deal of this work can be 
thus done by mechanical agency alone ; but at the same 
time the operation has to be watched, and the results 
carefully noted, different qualities of iron requiring 
different amounts of lime, and, in other respects, some- 
what different treatment. 

It is to be hoped that our scientific boys are already 
inclined to ask, " Can nothing be done to prevent the 
enormous waste of heat which escapes at the summit of 
blast-furnaces ? " We say " we hope this," because it is by 
using their wits as boys they are likely to develop into 
clever men — and God gave us eyes and natural senses that 
we might duly use them to benefit our fellow-creatures. 

Such waste, we may at once tell them, is preventable, 

although there are still many iron-smelters who refuse to 

economise in this way. We have not yet called attention 

to the fact that these are not azr-furnaces but blast- 

furnaces, as they are technically named, i.e., a blast of 

air is continually urged upon the fuel and the metal to 

assist in the smelting, similar in kind, but of course 

immeasurably greater in degree than that produced by 

the bellows of a blacksmith's forge. Now it occurred to 

one of our iron-smelters that if a blast of hot air could be 

substituted for the usual cold blast, a vast saving in fuel 

c 



3 4 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

would result, and experiment confirmed that opinion. 
It was then determined to use the waste heat, which had 
hitherto been a source of loss, to effect this heating of the 
air. The summit, therefore, of the furnace was shut in by 
a kind of funnel, the lower part of which could be closed 
at pleasure by a conical valve or shutter of iron, suspended 
to a chain passing over pulleys at the top of the furnace, 
and thence to the workmen below. 

An iron pipe or flue was then inserted in the side, to 
carry the waste gases to the oven. In this is placed a coil 
of the pipe which passes from the blowing-machine, or 
blast-cylinder, to the mouth of the furnace, where it is 
divided into three parts, each with its separate nozzle or 
tuyere, directed through proper openings towards the 
centre of the furnace (A, B, C, of section). The air is 
thus heated as it passes through the windings of the coil 
to a temperature of about 600 degrees. Of course this 
prevents the fuel and iron from being in the least degree 
cooled by the impact of the stream of air. When a fresh 
charge is required for the furnace, the stopper or conical 
plate is lowered from under the funnel, and the coal and 
ironstone is tipped into the latter, after which the stopper 
is drawn up, and the operation continues as before. As 
we do not intend to linger very much about the prepara- 
tion of the iron from its ores, our object being rather to 
show how articles are subsequently made, there are many 



IRON. 35 



details of iron-smelting purposely omitted. It may, how- 
ever, be here stated that coal is not now generally used 
in its raw or natural state, but is first reduced in proper 
ovens to the condition of coke, the gases and bituminous 
ingredients, and also the water contained in it, being thus 
driven off, as well as the sulphur, the deleterious nature 
of which we have already pointed out. 

Before dismissing this part of the subject, however, 
it is necessary to explain the object of using lime as a 
flux, for which purpose a little chemistry must be entered 
into. Limestone, as commonly found in nature, is one of 
the earthy carbonates. It is a chemical combination of 
pure lime and carbonic acid. As such we have it in 
various forms of chalk, marble, limestone, oyster and 
other shells. When either of these substances are sub- 
mitted to the heat of a kiln or of a furnace properly 
constructed, the gas called carbonic acid is driven off, 
leaving the lime in its pure or caustic state. When 
this occurs in the iron-furnace, the lime combines with 
the earthy impurities in the ore, and fuses into a glassy 
substance called cinder, or slag ; while the carbonic acid 
as it escapes lays hold of the iron, which is always found 
to be combined with carbon, as it issues from the blast- 
furnace. The coke is itself, moreover, carbon nearly pure, 
and probably supplies this substance in part to the molten 
metal. Much carbonic acid gas, however, escapes from 



36 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

the top of the furnace, as happens in the case of an 
ordinary fire. 

The blast by which the fire is urged in a furnace is 
produced by a blowing-cylinder, in which is a piston like 
that of an engine, which is driven from end to end in 
alternate strokes, compelling the air to pass through valves 
to the furnace. As there is an inlet and outlet valve at 
each end of this cylinder, the blast thus produced is 
continuous. The pipe carrying it onward first enters the 
oven before mentioned, where it is made into a coil for 
heating, and thence it passes to three tuyeres or nozzles 
pointing to the fire, one of which is seen at A, another at 
B, and a third at C, in the sectional drawing of the iron- 
fnrnace. The fourth opening, from which, when the 
furnace is tapped, the iron runs in a stream into moulds 
of sand, is stopped by a plug of clay, which is broken 
with an iron bar when the metal is melted. A little 
above the tap-hole is the cinder-notch, from which runs 
the slag or cinder in a molten state. This being lighter 
than the iron, swims upon its surface, and is continually 
flowing off down an inclined plane arranged for the 
purpose. This slag frequently contains a good deal of 
metal, which for a long time was allowed to run to waste, 
but is now remelted with special fluxes, and deprived of 
the iron contained in it. It is used for road-making, 
coping for walls, rock work for gardens, and is thus in 



IRON. 37 



many ways made useful. Nevertheless, it is produced in 
such quantities that the hills in an iron district which 
rise on all sides are in reality huge cinder-heaps, on 
which, in course of years, an earthy stratum becomes 
deposited, and here and there patches of stunted vegeta- 
tion with difficulty grow. An iron district is a terribly 
dreary and dirty region. 

I wonder how many of my readers have seen an iron 
sow, and her litter of iron pigs? One would deem such 
a strange compound of the animal and mineral world, 
yet these are the produce of every iron furnace or cupola 
in the kingdom. When the iron is melted, as above 
described, the furnace is tapped by destroying the plug 
of sand, which the heat has hardened ; and the metal is 
then conducted into a sand bed, in which, by means of 
wooden blocks of a suitable size, a number of little 
oblong recesses or pits are made. The main ones are 
longer and larger than the rest, which branch off right 
and left. The iron runs, therefore, first into these larger 
moulds, and thence into the rest. The result is a num- 
ber of masses of crude metal called sows and pigs, which 
thence pass through various processes, to deprive them of 
their brittleness and render them pure and malleable 
(malleus, a hammer). For when these sows are cold they 
are so brittle that by being dropped on a block of 
wrought iron they will break short off like glass, and 



3 8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

the broken ends appear of a beautiful crystalline form, 
bright and shining, and of various tints, according to 
quality. A sample is thus always broken, on purpose to 
test the character of the metal, which a practised hand 
will value at a glance. Even the same ironstone will 
produce various qualities of metal, depending on the fuel- 
flux and state of the furnace. 

It will probably surprise some of our young readers to 
learn that iron in this crystalline condition may be re- 
melted without difficulty ; but if they were to try and 
melt a piece of wrought metal, such as they could pick 
up at a blacksmith's, they would find that instead of 
melting it would burn, throwing off a number of bright 
sparks, as it does when brought to a welding heat at the 
forge. A piece of wrought iron, moreover, is only broken 
with difficulty, by being bent backwards and forwards 
until it gives way; and when it is thus fractured, it 
appears to be composed of a number of long fibres instead 
of crystals, so that its character since it was numbered 
among the pigs has evidently been much refined and 
improved ; its education has been evidently well carried 
out, and we shall find satisfaction in investigating the 1 
principles on which it has been conducted. 

The pig-iron, is not pure metal, but, even when it has 
been carefully smelted with good coke, contains many 
impurities, as silicon, carbon, phosphorus, sulphur, and 



IRON. 39 



probably manganese. These have to be got rid of as far 
as possible, if the iron is to be used for any other purpose 
than rough casting. 

To effect such riddance it is first of all refined, then 
puddled (sows and puddles are, we fancy, generally no 
strangers to each other). The first operation is conducted 
in a furnace of peculiar shape, called a finery, which need 
not be here described in detail, as the main object is to 
show in this place what it is designed to effect, and in 
what manner its work is done. Its object is to supply to 
the iron a charge of oxygen, which gas has the property 
of combining with certain substances {all substances 
probably, with very few exceptions), and by such com- 
bination forming new compounds. The blowpipes, or tuy- 
eres of the refinery are six in number, and are so arranged 
as to pour upon the molten iron a continual and forcible 
stream of air, by which it is kept in a state of movement 
or ebullition. The best coke is used as fuel, and the air is 
not now heated as it passes from the blower to the furnace. 

The air of the blast, containing as it does a large 
amount of the required oxj'gen, and impinging violently 
on the boiling and seething metal, combines with its 
carbon, and carries it off in the form of carbonic oxide 
or carbonic acid gas, which escapes from the chimney. 
Carbonic oxide burns with a blue flame, and is probably 
partly consumed. 



4 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

The sulphur also combines with oxygen and escapes, 
and the silicon and part of the oxidised iron form a 
cinder or slag on the surface of the metal. The latter is 
therefore deprived of many of its impurities, and runs 
from the finery considerably altered in character and 
appearance, being silvery, and not so grey in colour. 
It now bears the name of " fine metal." I think we 
might not inaptly call it Roast Pig. During the pro- 
cess just described water is continually thrown upon 
the molten iron, both to assist it in separating its cinder 
or slag, and also to render it brittle, because it now has 
to be broken up with sledge-hammers, thence to be handed 
over to the not very tender mercies of the puddler. The 
action of the water and the hammer, therefore, may be said 
to produce on our pig something akin to " crackling." 

The next operation is carried on in a furnace very like 
an ordinary baker's oven — i.e., it has an arched top and 
flat floor. In this, for the first time, the iron is not inter- 
mixed with the fuel, the coal or coke — generally coal — 
being laid on a grate at one end of the oven, which is 
separated by a low wall, called a bridle, from the central 
part or hearth, on which the bars of iron are piled, and 
also by a similar bridle from the third division just under 
the chimney. The arched roof reflects or reverberates the 
heat upon the iron. I need hardly remind our boys that 
re-verbero signifies to beat again, or perhaps to hit back 



IRON. 41 



in return for a blow given, the flame being beaten back 
upon the iron before it is allowed to pass on to the chim- 
ney. The heat produced is very great, and in about an 
hour the iron is melted, and fit for the peculiar work of 
the puddler. He uses two long bars of iron, one some- 
what hoe-shaped, the other flattened only, but straight, 
each about eight feet long. These he introduces through 
a hole in the door of the furnace, and with them stirs up 
and works the melting mass with great labour and no 
little skill. Some slag and " mill scale," similar to what 
falls from the heated and hammered iron in a smith's 
shop, and which is called in chemical parlance " black oxide 
of iron," is always added to the metal in the puddling- 
furnace, as this gives up its oxygen to the iron, which is 
the object in view. Looking into the furnace at a par- 
ticular point in the operation, you would see nothing 
but a glowing mass, on which you could scarcely keep the 
eye a moment. The workman, however, sees the iron 
bubbling and boiling wondrously as it imbibes the 
oxygen, and he turns on all the heat available by opening 
the damper in the chimney to its full width, and by dint 
of the skilful use of his iron " rabble," and its companion 
" paddle," he gets the now pasty mass into lumps or 
blooms of about eighty pounds weight, which are then 
withdrawn for further operations. During the process 
the slag flows off, and the iron becomes pure. I do not 



42 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

think any exact explanation has been given of the nature 
of the above process. It results in a further partial 
oxidation of the iron; but why this should render it pasty 
and capable of being thus worked, and who discovered the 
art of puddling, I cannot say. In England the process 
seems to date about 1780, and Cort of Gloucestershire, an 
ironmaster, was the one who did most to bring the art 
to perfection. He, as is frequently the case with inventors, 
did not reap the fruits of his skill, but died a poor man ; 
though others, to say nothing of his country, were so 
highly benefited by his discoveries, that many huge 
fortunes resulted, and England stepped at once into her 
proper place as the greatest seat of the iron trade in the 
world. 

We may now consider the iron thoroughly deprived of 
its carbon, as well as of all other impurities, although 
some will not entirely separate from it by any of the 
above processes. Phosphorus, for instance, is found in 
nearly every sample, and probably the iron is none the 
worse for its presence. 




Chapter III. 



TILTING AND ROLLING. 




E now pass from the preliminary operations of 
the iron manufacture, which have supplied us 
with a lump of pure metal in a condition which 
it has not hitherto attained. Deprived of its 
carbon in the puddling-furnace, it will now bear to be 
hammered and rolled, and otherwise tormented, without 
fracture. It has become tough and malleable. As soon 
as it leaves the hands of the puddler, it is taken in its 
highly-heated state, on a little iron truck, either to the 
squeezer, tilt-hammer, helve, or steam-hammer, by which 
the metal is pressed or hammered with enormous power 
until it becomes a thoroughly compact mass, and what- 
ever cinder may have got into it in the puddling-furnace 
is removed. There are various forms of both these 
machines. The old tilt-hammer was worked by water- 
power, and was of no very large size ; the helves, similarly 
driven, were more massive. : The squeezers are of compara- 



44 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

tively modern date, and are not always so favourably 
received as the hammer. Probably either effects the 
desired object equally well, but there is a prejudice in 
favour of the older friend, which we may adopt as a 

moral. 

" New friends may be wittier, handsomer, bolder, 
But until you've proved them, stick to the older ; 
A new coat may fit, and look faultlessly nice, 
But the wearer feels much as if gripped in a vice ; 
We gain little comfort from being well dressed, 
So I say that old coats and old friends are the best." 

The process, in whichever way it is conducted, is called 
shingling, and a noisy process it is, though not nearly so 
bad as a boilerniaker's. The tilt-hammers have been 
mostly discarded in the manufacture of iron, because they 
were found too light for the more massive productions of 
modern days, and the helve and steam-hammer are now 
generally employed. The helve (fig. 5) is a ponderous 
hammer, lifted by revolving cams on the axis of the 
driving-wheel. Steam is the power used, except where 
water is plentiful. The whole helve is now of iron, 
but used to be of ash, and was made up as a compound 
beam bound with iron hoops. An old-fashioned forge on 
the banks of a river, amid beautiful scenery, was a pic- 
turesque object in days gone by; but everything has 
changed now, and the ogre steam has swallowed up its 
weaker rivals, driving the manufacturer and his machines 



HEL VE. 



45 



from the old haunts to the wild and black country of 
coal-pits and cinder-heaps, so that it is only here and there 
(as at Tintern) that one sees such manufactures still 
carried on near the homes of salmon and trout and 
grayling, whose ears, if they have any, seem insensible to 
the sounds of noisy industry in their midst. The actual 
hammer-head, which is rapidly worn out by the heavy 
work it has to perform, is not made a permanent part of 




Fig. 5.- Helve. 

the machine, but fits into a socket in the extremity of 
the helve, so that it can be speedily removed and replaced 
by a new one, spare heads being always kept ready, so 
as not to delay the work, which is carried on night and 
day. The face of the hammer, and that of the anvil, is 
divided into three parts or steps, as it is found better in 
practice to subject the puddled mass to a force which shall 
affect it variously, spreading it out sideways, or lengthen- 
ing or flattening it at pleasure. The weight of such a 



4* 



AMONGST MACHINES. 




Fig. 6.— Steam- Hammer. 



STEAM-HAMMER. 47 

hammer is 6 or 7 tons, and it makes about sixty 
strokes a minute ; so that the reader can readily under- 
stand why the head of a helve and its anvil require very 
frequent renewal. 

Fearful as the blow of the helve may be, it is a mere 
joke to that of the steam-hammer (fig. 6), which neverthe- 
less is so beautifully arranged, that it will crack a nut 
without injuring the kernel, a feat it is often made to 
perform for the delectation and astonishment of the visitor. 
In many ironworks the helve has wholly been superseded 
by this machine, which is very simple in principle, though 
it may appear somewhat complicated in detail. There is 
first of all a massive frame of wrought or cast iron, A, 
fixed to a solid base of masonry below the floor of the 
workshop ; for the vibration caused by the descent of the 
hammer is enormous, and, in spite of all precautions, jars 
and shakes the whole workshop and all within reach of its 
effects. At the upper end of this frame is a steam-cylin- 
der B, in which is a piston like that of an engine, but the 
piston-rod is below, and at its extremity is the hammer- 
head C. Steam is admitted below the piston, and the 
hammer is thus raised, and when at the desired height, 
communication with the steam is cut off, and air admitted 
freely, and down falls the hammer by its own weight 
upon the mass of white-hot metal upon the block below 
called the anvil. The blows, mighty as they are, are given 



48 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

at the rate of about one a second. So far the machine 
is easy of comprehension, but practically there are certain 
requirements to be fulfilled to render it efficient for the 
purpose designed. In the first place, the mass of iron 
to be hammered will not always be of equal size or thick- 
ness ; sometimes, therefore, a light blow will be required, 
and sometimes a heavy one. Then, again, the workman 
must have time between the strokes to adjust the mass of 
metal, and consequently he must be able either to arrest 
the strokes at pleasure, or to let them go on at high speed ; 
so it becomes requisite to admit or cut off the steam in a 
moment, to cause the hammer to rise to its full height 
so as to fall with its utmost force, or to allow it only to 
rise a few inches. By the very clever arrangements now 
to be described all these several conditions are fulfilled, 
and the whole is brought as much under the control of 
the workman as the light hand-hammer by which the 
reader may drive a tintack or a nail. In fact, the steam- 
hammer is quite as competent to drive a tack as to reduce 
a huge mass of iron to a flat plate. Now all these various 
requirements are met by simple mechanical arrangements, 
which are self-acting and under easy control, so that a 
single attendant can, by moving a couple of levers, cause 
the hammer to rise and fall, stopping each time in mid- 
air, and then, the moment the iron is in position, come 
thundering down upon it with a force of some tons. 



STEAM-HAMMER. 49 

This is accomplished by the slide-valve E and its fit- 
tings. This valve is contained in the box F at the bottom 
of the cylinder, and its valve-rod is seen at G. A slide- 
valve, we may explain to those few who have never seen 
one, is a plate or shallow box, which, by being moved up 
or down, opens a hole or slit under it, and admits steam 
or air, as the case may be. Ordinarily this valve is open 
in the steam-hammer, so as to admit steam under the 
piston in the cylinder, and thus keep the hammer raised. 
To this end the sliding-plate is below the steam-port. It 
is so kept partly by its own weight, and partly by the 
following contrivance: — H is also a small cylinder with a 
piston (like that of a syringe or squirt) inside it. This is 
attached to the rod of the slide-valve. Steam is admitted 
to the upper side of this piston, pressing it down, and 
so keeping open the valve already described. In order to 
shut off steam, therefore, in the big cylinder, and so allow 
the hammer to fall, we must draw the slide-valve rod 
upwards, and so raise the slide and prevent steam from 
entering. This raising of the valve-rod is of course 
resisted by the pressure of the steam in the small cylinder 
H, which acts therefore as a spring. One end of a lever 
I is attached by a pinned joint to the valve-rod, and at 
the other to a vertical rod by a swivel joint, for reasons 
that will be presently understood. This rod is screwed 
for a portion of its length, and another precisely similar 



5° 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



screw is fixed so as to be free to revolve parallel to it. 
The first screw, however, is cut with a right-handed 
thread, the second with a left-handed one. This is neces- 
sary, because they are geared to each other, and therefore 
turn in opposite directions, but the nuts which slide upon 
them are needed to move in the same direction, up or 
down, and to move precisely together. These nuts are 
marked KK. That on the right-hand screw carries the 
stud on which is hinged the bent lever L ; that on the 
left carries a pin which acts on the tail of this lever. The 
whole of this screw must be free to move up and down, 
and it passes, therefore, through two sockets. This move- 
ment, however, would interfere with the acting of the 
bevel-wheels MM, which work by the handle N, and cause 

the rotation of the screws on 
their axes. The wheel, therefore, 
on the screw is merely slipped 
over, and is kept from turning 
round by a pin or feather and 
slot, as shown in fig. 7. We 
illustrate it because it is a com- 
mon arrangement in machines, 
especially in drilling-machines, 
and is a simple but very im- 
portant mechanical contrivance. It will now be plain, 
we think, to the reader, that, by turning the winch- 





rig. 7.— Slot and Feather. 



STEAM-HAMMER, 51 



handle, both these ferrules will move up or down, carry- 
ing with them the bent lever, and bringing its end 
nearer to, or more distant from, the head of the hammer. 
It will also be clear that if the hammer, or a stud upon 
it, touches the end of the lever in its ascent, it will 
cause its other end to descend, and, by its connection with 
the left-hand screw, will cause its descent also, but without 
such descent affecting the relative positions of the bevel- 
wheels. It will also be plain that when the screw moves 
thus downwards, it will, through the means of the upper 
bent lever, pull up the rod of the slide-valve against the 
resistance of the steam in the small cylinder; and this 
will cut off the steam, and allow the piston to descend, if 
the air is also admitted above it, for without this the pistou 
would remain suspended, or descend but a very little way. 
Moreover, the piston could not ascend with the admission 
of steam below it, if the air were shut in between it and 
the top of the cylinder. To admit this air there are a 
number of holes round the upper part of the main 
cylinder of the machine, which remain open except when 
the piston itself closes them by being opposite to them 
in its ascent. When this happens, the air shut in above 
forms an elastic cushion, which takes off a great deal of 
the jar that would otherwise ensue, because it gives a 
little impulse to the piston as it reaches its highest point, 



5 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

starting it on its downward course. This is technically 
called u cushioning." 

The steam is admitted from the boiler into the steam- 
chest, and the small pipe from this admits steam to the 
small cylinder freely, this being always open. Now we 
may suppose the port in the slide-valve open, and that it 
will remain so while pressed down by the steam in the 
small cylinder acting on its rod by means of the piston at 
the upper end. The result will be that the large piston in 
the main cylinder will be raised, and will lift the hammer 
at the end of the piston-rod. The latter, thus raised, cannot 
drop till the steam is cut off by raising the slide-valve. 
This is accordingly done, for as the hammer passes the end 
of the bent lever (which has a roller at the point where 
the projecting head of the hammer will touch it, to lessen 
the shock) it will raise this, and thus, by lowering the other 
end, pull down the rod with the screw, and, lifting the 
valve-rod, shut off the steam. The exact time at which 
the hammer-head will strike the end of the bent lever will 
depend on the position of the latter, and this, as ex- 
plained, is regulated by raising or lowering the nuts of 
the screws by means of the handle attached to the bevel- 
wheels. But under these conditions the hammer will 
begin to fall, . and then the steam will raise it again ; 
because, as soon as the lever is passed, the valve will 
again drop, and admit steam to the cylinder as before. 



STEAM-HAMMER. 53 

The hammer would thus oscillate, or move up aud down a 
certain distance, but would not reach the metal on the 
anvil below. For the latter purpose it will evidently be 
necessary, after the left-hand screw has been depressed 
(closing the steam -valve of the large cylinder), to retain 
it in this position until the hammer shall have made its 
full blow, and then release it instantly, and allow steam 
to enter and raise the hammer as before. This is effected 
by an automatic or self-acting contrivance, as follows : — 
The rod on which the left-hand screw is cut, and which, 
as explained, can be raised and lowered without moving 
the wheel through which it passes, is enlarged at P by a 
boss, and at Q is a kind of trigger or catch, with a handle 
attached to it, the weight of which tends to keep the short 
end against the enlarged part of the rod of the screw. 
When the latter, therefore, has descended a certain distance, 
the trigger slips over the boss and falls against the smaller 
part of the rod, preventing the boss from moving upwards, 
and this, therefore, holds the rod also off the slide-valve, 
keeping it closed, and shutting off steam. Under these 
conditions the hammer will fall upon the work laid on the 
anvil below. And now comes into action a very ingenious 
application of a mechanical law elsewhere explained in 
this book — viz., the law of vis inerticz, by which every 
moving body tends to continue its motion in the same 
direction until some external force, impeding its further 



54 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

progress, brings it to a state of rest. Pivoted to the 
hammer-head at is a bent lever weighted at one end, 
the other end, which is shorter, resting against a vertical 
bar VY, attached to the framing by links WW like those of 
a parallel ruler. When the hammer falls upon the iron, 
and is suddenly checked in its descent, the weighted end 
of the lever, not being similarly prevented from further 
descent, drops by the concussion, the spring by which it is 
otherwise sustained yielding to its impetus. The opposite 
short end, therefore, of the lever kicks against the vertical 
bar yy, which is thereby caused to move sideways, and 
its curved end striking against the trigger Q, knocks it 
away from the boss of the screwed rod, which at once 
rises under the action of the small piston, and, opening 
the valve, readmits the steam to raise the hammer. The 
attendant can by means of the lower handle draw down 
the screw at pleasure, and close the valve, or by the other 
he can move back the trigger from the boss. He can 
therefore keep the hammer oscillating up and down until 
the iron is placed in a proper position to receive the 
blow. 

The steam-hammer is, on the whole, one of the most 
ingenious adaptations of certain mechanical powers, in the 
whole range of machinery used in the arts and manufac- 
tures. It places a force of almost irresistible power 
within the management of a child. It will drive a tin- 



STEAM-HAMMER. 



55 



tack with gentle taps into a piece of deal, or it will 
reduce by a few mighty blows a seething mass of iron 
from the form of a large cubical block to that of a 
flat plate, and withal so speedily that it can be thence 
removed to the rolls, and further reduced to the condition 
of a thin sheet before it has had time to grow cold. I 
wonder if the Cyclopean forgers of Jupiter's thunderbolts 
in their subterranean workshops would have combined to 
get up a " strike " if old Vulcan had ventured to introduce 
such a tool to replace the hand hammers and sledges 
wielded by those brawny arms. Of course my classical 
readers have no doubts as to the fact of the existence of 
those giant blacksmiths. 

Premising that Sheffield is meant by the word Sepkilcea, 
we might give the following lines from a Latin poem of 
Dr. Dering, a Dean of Ripon, as an exercise for our young 
readers. The longe resonat, however, is not so applicable 
to the steam-hammer as might be supposed, because its 
heavy thump is heard at no great distance, while the clang 
of the boilermaker's hammer sounds far and wide, and 
is deafening when close at hand. 

" Mille ardet Sephilcea focis. Fornace liquescit 
Montibus effossi vicinis massa metalli, 
Et longe resonat glomeratis ictibus incus, 
Nee lunae aut cotis cessat labor. Insuper arma 
Ante oculos fabri poimnt Romana ; notantque 
Mutandum siquid; seu sint exempla sequenda." 



56 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

In the workshops, however, alluded to in the above 
quotation, it was not exactly boiler-plate, but armour •> 
plate, which had to be fashioned by the workman's cease- 
less hammer, and in the fashioning of which these hardy 
smiths were endeavouring to take a hint from their 
enemies. There were no rolling-mills then, and the iron 
sheets were made and formed by the laborious process 
indicated above. 

To move a large mass of iron about under the steam- 
hammer or the helve, a long iron bar is raised to a 
welding heat at one end, and laid upon it; the first blow 
attaches it to the white-hot metal, and the workman is 
thus enabled to move the latter about. The end of the 
bar, however, is generally made with a cross handle, to 
give him more power, and he is further assisted by his 
companion or mate, who is similarly provided, or who 
uses a gigantic pair of tongs, and other similar means 
of manipulating the mass. A bloom, however, from 
the puddling - furnace rarely exceeds eighty or ninety 
pounds, and can be turned about by one man. In large 
forgings the case is different, and two or more men are 
needed. 

The puddled mass we may now suppose to have been 
freed from any cinder by the squeezer or hammer, and 
to be considerably flattened, if intended for further reduc- 
tion, to the form of a plate or sheet, but if intended for 



ROLLS. 57 

bar-iron for rails or other purposes, the shape will receive 
the necessary modification under the hammer, being 
elongated in one direction only. 

In either case the metal is probably destined for the 
rolls (figs. 8 and 9). These are cylinders of iron, turned 
very truly in a lathe, and either perfectly cylindrical 
from end to end, for rolling plates for boilers, bridges, 
tubes, or other of the many purposes to which flat plates 
are now put ; or variously grooved, with semicircular, 
angular, or parallel grooves, so that when a bar of hot 
iron is made to pass between them, it becomes of a 
sectional form corresponding with these. A semicircular 
groove in each, the grooves being opposite to each other, 
will result in a round bar, triangular ones in a prismatic 
or square bar. For railways, in which the rails vary in 
form, and are either rectangular, hammer-headed, or 
doubly hammer-headed, each roller will need a groove 
corresponding to the half section. Of whatever form 
the rolls are made as regards their surfaces, there is 
an arrangement for adjusting them at the required dis- 
tances from each other. This is effected by a screw, with 
arms bent so as to be within reach of the workmen, and 
at each end ; so that as the plate gets thinner the rolls 
can be brought nearer and nearer, until the plate is of 
the thickness required. 

To prevent the rolls from heating, a stream of water 




Ill 



^mp< ^'iinij(j|F 



oi/yu, 



fM/^>^ 



MVn 



Pig. 9. — Rolls for Bar- Iron of various secti 



ROLLS. 59 



trickles constantly over them from end to end ; and as, 
in spite of all care, they necessarily wear more or less 
unevenly, they require to be freshly turned from time 
to time. This is usually done in a lathe kept on the 
premises for that special purpose. The speed at which 
the rolls are driven is very great, so that the plate, when 
first inserted, goes through in a moment with a sharp 
crack. The second workman receives and tosses it back to 
his fellow, or it is sent back through another pair of rolls 
turning in the opposite direction. A few minutes reduce 
a thick lump of metal to a broad and long plate, the 
whole operation being completed " at one heat," or before 
the iron has had time to get cold. 

In the figures are two sets of rolls, and it will be seen 
by the white spaces the shapes of the plates or bars that 
will thus be formed. The very rough part of the first set 
is used for the preliminary work on a bloom, by which 
cinder is pressed out, and the piece reduced to a rough 
sheet, or rather plate, the surface of which will be full 
of indentations. It is then passed between the plain 
rolls. 

In the above operation the crystals or granules of the 
metal become fibres, from being each drawn out in one 
direction, so that the iron after being rolled is no longer 
brittle ; but sometimes a bloom from the puddling- furnace 
will fly to pieces from having been insufficiently decar- 



6o 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



bonised. In such cases the puddler has usually to submit 
to a fine, and generally gets considerably chaffed as well, 
for his negligence. 

We may as well follow up now one of these iron 
sheets in its plain state, and see what may be done with 
it. First, it may be, and very often is, passed between 
"slitting rolls," which cut it into strips of any desired 

width. These rolls are shown 
in fig. 10, and it is evident 
that, during its passage be- 
tween these, a sheet will be 
divided lengthwise into as many 
strips as there are divisions 
in the rolls, the thickness 
being that of the original plate. 
Rods of flat and round iron 
are both equally the result of 

Fig. 10. 

rolling ; and the reader can un- 
derstand how easy it is in this way to make these rods of 
any required sectional shape, as grooves can be turned 
in one or both at pleasure. 

We have now traced the iron steadily through the 
processes required to reduce it from its ore to malleable 
rods fit for nails and other purposes, plates for boilers, 
girders, tanks, <fec, and sheets for lighter articles like 
coal-scuttles, roofs of buildings, stove-pipes, and other 




IRON. 



61 



common and well-known requisites. Let us first inquire 
how it is further reduced to the condition of wire ; and 
as we may as well in this case leave the Black Country 
for a more secluded spot of great beauty, we will pay a 
theoretical visit to the precincts of the Abbey of Tintern, 
in Monmouthshire, upon the banks of the Wye, and 
describe the process as carried on there before our eyes. 




>^K 




^F" 



Chapter IV, 



WIRE-DRA WING. 




AD we not been already introduced to iron sows 
and pigs, we should have been able to make 
acquaintance with them here at Tintern, where 
they flourish in as great quantities as salmon 
pink, or the more mysterious elvers. There is but one 
wire-drawing establishment here, however, picturesquely 
situated among the towering cliffs and woody banks of 
the loveliest stream in England. The river, or a tributary 
stream, is here made to take its share of unromantic toil, 
and work the blowing-machines by which the furnaces 
are kept up to the intense heat that is requisite. Even 
here, however, we believe steam has established its 
sovereignty, and does the heavier work of converting the 
iron to the form of wire. But here we meet with what 
we failed to see in the Black Country already visited. 
The fuel used is charcoal, which is (or was not long since) 



WIRE-DRA WING. 63 



transported on the backs of mules and donkeys from the 
Forest of Dean, some ten miles distant from the furnaces. 
This fuel is solely used at Tintern, because only the best 
qualities of charcoal iron will stand the process of rolling 
and drawing into wire. 

Charcoal-burners of the forest have often been made a 
subject for the pencil and brush of the artist, for very 
picturesque they are in their sylvan home. The process 
of making charcoal is a very simple one, yet needs some 
experience and care ; but, as we shall presently explain, 
that used at Tintern (and in the district for private houses) 
is not all made on purpose for fuel, but is the refuse of a 
chemical process for producing wood-naphtha. The ordi- 
nary process of charcoal-burning is conducted as follows : — 
The wood is cut down and split into billets of a con- 
venient length and size, which are then built up in heaps 
of a conical form, dry wood and other combustibles being 
first laid as a means of setting fire to the mass. The 
whole pile is then overlaid with clay and turf, a hole 
being left at the summit of each conical heap for escape 
of smoke ; other holes are also left near the lower part to 
admit air. Thus built, these piles have something the 
appearance at a distance of a group of Indian wigwams, 
in which fancy may easily imagine a happy family of 
Redskins sitting round the fire smoking the pipe of peace 
while discussing the scarcity of scalps, by the number of 



64 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

which hanging at the waist the dusky braves were wont to 
enrapture the eyes of the Indian belles. Well, happily 
we have no such custom, though the pipe of peace — an 
honest clay blackened with use — is very generally to be 
seen in the lips of our dusky charcoal-burners, and not 
seldom also in the lips of their wives. When the pile of 
wood is ready, it is ignited at the base, and is soon in a 
state of fierce incandescence, flames leaping forth from the 
various orifices. As soon as the fire, however, is thoroughly 
lighted, all the lower air-holes are stopped with turves, and 
the whole heap then smoulders quietly until the substance 
of the wood is charred completely through. The exclusion 
of air prevents it from being "burnt" or converted into 
ashes, as it w r ould otherwise be, and it retains its outward 
form and inner substance, still appearing like wood with 
its radiating marks and pores, but all alike is blackened 
and converted into carbon, which can be easily reduced to 
powder if desired. 

The other way of making charcoal is to place billets 
of wood in iron cylinders called retorts, and submit them, 
thus shut up, to the heat of a furnace. In this case we 
save much of the substance of the wood which is wasted 
when charcoal is made in the manner already described. 
This process can be shown by means of a little simple 
chemical apparatus which I have here copied from Griffin's 
" Chemical Recreations." I give it because it will show 



WIRE-BRA WING. 



65 



the results of burning wood in close vessels better than 
any other illustration (fig. 11). 

The apparatus is merely a bent tube, or tube retort, held 
over the flame of a lamp (here it is a gas-lamp, but a 
common spirit-lamp will do as well). This is connected 
with a bent tube called a receiver, also of glass, by means 




Pig. 11.— Distillation of Wood 

of a bit of indiarubber tubing. The end of the receiver is 
corked, and has a smaller tube passing from it to the pneu- 
matic trough. This is merely a basin half-full of water, in 
which there is a shelf or stand with a hole at the side and 
in the top. It is here made as an earthenware box, and 
may be replaced by a flower-pot with a piece knocked out 
of one side. Over the hole in the top of this stands a 



66 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

glass tube, or it might be a phial, or any open bottle of 
small size, which is filled with water, and then, while the 
finger is held over its mouth, inverted so that the mouth 
is under water in the basin. If the finger is then removed, 
the water will not run out, and it is set up on end on the 
shelf over the hole, as seen in the drawing. In this way, 
you see, we shall catch all the products of our cookery or 
distillation of wood, as it would be called. This wood 
we place in the retort, and very soon it will become 
red-hot. First it will emit steam and vapour, because all 
such substances contain more or less water, and this will 
condense in the cold receiver, and run down to the bent 
part. In addition to this, gas will pass over, and rise in 
bubbles through the water, which it will drive out of the 
receiver or upright tube, and will occupy its place. Now 
the charcoal will be at once seen, the wood having become 
charred, and converted into this substance. At the bend 
of the tube is what looks like dirty water ; but though it 
is partly water, it contains two substances besides — a thin 
clear liquor, and a thick brown one. The first is acetic acid 
(a very strong vinegar) and wood-spirit, or wood-naphtha, 
mixed together ; the brown liquor is wood-tar. But besides 
these there are always other substances in combination or 
mixed up with them. Now this little experiment is, in 
miniature, what are called chemical works, in which, by 
dry distillation of oak and beech in iron retorts, are pro- 



WIRE-DRA WING. 67 

duced large quantities of wood-naphtha, tar, and acetio 
acid, each of which has its own special uses in our various 
manufactures. It is a curious fact, moreover, that various 
substances, allowed perhaps for years to run to waste 
in the production of some other substance required, have 
ultimately become of even greater value than the substance 
originally desired to be made. Such, for instance, is ben- 
zolioe, once allowed to run to waste in the manufacture 
of paraffine, and which is now largely used for lamps and 
other purposes ; and glycerine, which was once considered 
a waste production in the manufacture of stearine candles. 
The produce, however, of this wood distillation which 
we have to deal with now is simply charcoal, the refuse 
of the manufacture of wood-naphtha. This, when taken 
from the retorts and cooled, is packed in sacks and 
conveyed to the ironworks. Probably (for our remi- 
niscences of Tintern date back, we grieve to say, twenty 
years) the old mode of transportation has become a thing 
of the past. At that time, indeed, a railway was being 
arranged in the immediate district, which bid fair to 
exterminate a good deal of the old romance that for 
centuries had lent its charm to the vale of Tintern. 
Probably, therefore, as we have remarked, the mules and 
donkeys, with their gipsy-like drivers, are no more. But 
they formed a curious sight to a stranger as they appeared 
in a long line creeping in and out among the wood} 



68 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

lanes, scarcely ever two abreast, but treading in each 
other's footsteps, like Indian braves upon the war-path. 
With this charcoal only the iron used for wire is smelted ; 
because, there being no sulphur, the metal is not dete- 
riorated, but refined and purified. As we have said a 
good deal about the smelting-furnaces and finery, we may 
quit these, and go across the yard to the rolls, where 
the operation of reducing the iron to a coarse wire fit 
for fencing and similar purposes is carried on. Imagine 
a large shed, the floor black with scale and dust, furnaces 
on one side roaring and devouring our litters of pigs, 
and roasting them with the fury of demons. We ask to 
look inside one of these mighty ovens. A lever is pulled 
down, and the sliding-door is raised, and we at first only 
see flames writhing and twisting, and licking with their 
sharp tongues all sides of their prison-house. Presently 
we distinguish some of the wretched pigs almost in a 
molten state. One of these is seized, when just " done to 
a turn," and flung across the floor to be further tormented. 
It is to be passed, in short, between those relentless iron 
rolls which will turn pig into snake in a twinkling. 
The rolls are iron cylinders, of which three, one above 
the other, revolve in contact. But at intervals a groove 
has been turned in each ; so that when in contact, a round, 
square, or other shaped hole is formed by the two sec- 
tions, like fig. 12. According to the shape of these 



WJRE-DliA WING. 



69 



grooves will be that of the bar that is thus produced ; but 
at Tintern round wire only is made in this way. A 
workman stands at the furnace, and one on either side of 
each set of rolls. The former, with drawing a pig from 
the furnace, tosses it across the floor, where it is seized in 




Fig. 12.— Rolls for Wire-drawing. 

a large pair of tongs, and one end inserted in the largest 
groove or hole of the rolls. A sharp crack announces that 
our pig's first terrific squeeze is over ; and instantly another 
crack is heard, and the iron comes back on one side 
elongated and rounded. There must be no rest, however, 



7o AMONGST MA CHINE. 



as the iron must be worked while at a great heat, and 
thus a few more cracks and groans succeed as the bar 
is passed to and fro through smaller and smaller grooves, 
and in a few minutes the once plump pig is seen wrig- 
gling forth from its last journey a long, straggling, red- 
hot serpent, out of the way of which we find it prudent 
to hasten. This is laid hold of by another workman, and 
coiled upon an iron reel, from which, after the ends have 
been secured by a turn or two of binding-wire, it is 
taken and added to a heap of similar coils which await 
the further processes of annealing, pickling, and drawing. 
The rapidity with which the above operation is effected 
can hardly fail to strike the observer ; and when one com- 
pares the agricultural labourer, slowly following his plough 
up one furrow and down another, with these mechanical 
workmen, who cannot rest a moment lest the metal cool, 
one can see how it is that the minds of the latter are so 
much the more active, and that, in all their movements, 
and even in speech, they stand apart from the others, 
almost like a different class of men. Moreover, it generally 
happens that mechanical craftsmen repair to their read- 
ing or class room after the work of the day is finished, 
while the agricultural labourer is too frequently con- 
tented to spend Ms evening in the public-house, in a very 
dreamy and lethargic way, as if he possessed a mind 
incapable of enjoying intellectual pursuits. 



WIRE-DRA WING. 7 1 



Yet here again, as education slowly advances, improve- 
ment will, almost as a matter of necessity, take place, 
and again, boys, I appeal to you to promote the good 
work which will take place in your manhood. Agricul- 
tural labourers have not at present, perhaps, an equal 
chance with their mechanical brothers ; there is more 
facility in the large towns for obtaining books and 
papers, and for the establishment of literary and mutual 
improvement societies. But notwithstanding all draw- 
backs, a great deal more might be done in this direction 
in country villages than has yet been accomplished ; and 
if the better educated and more influential will but set 
their shoulders to the wheel, and try to provide their 
poorer brothers with means of mental improvement and 
intellectual recreation, there can be no doubt that grand 
results will at length ensue. Whenever you see an evil, 
boys, either now or in later life, don't be content to 
deplore it, but go courageously to work, and endeavour to 
remove it. 

But while I am talking of refining and polishing our 
labourers, I ought to be telling you how the same work 
is accomplished in respect of the wire. After leaving the 
rolls and becoming cool, the iron is found to have become 
very hard and stiff; and indeed it has had enough to make 
it so. It must now be rendered soft and ductile, which is 
accomplished in the following manner. The coils of wire 



72 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



are packed in what may be called iron tubs, and are then 
placed in furnaces constructed for the purpose, where they 
are subjected to a low red heat. They are then withdrawn 
from the furnaces, and allowed to cool very slowly, when 
the wire is found to be soft, and capable of being easily 
bent, having entirely lost its springiness. It will, 
however, have upon its surface scales and oxide from 
previous heatings, and these have now to be removed. 
The coils are therefore laid in a pickle of sulphuric acid 
and water, which is made very weak, or it would soon 
wholly dissolve the iron. A little copper is sometimes 
placed in the solution, as the thin coating of this metal 
which forms upon the wire is considered to facilitate the 
" drawing ; " but this is one of those details on which 
manufacturers are not agreed. After coming out of their 
pickling-tanks the coils are washed in beer-grounds, which 
further clean the surface, and prepare them for the opera- 
tion of the draw-plate. Imagine a long room or workshop, 
with a bench extending the whole length of it, at one end 
of which are two short, stout uprights, against which leans 
the draw-plate (fig. 13). This draw-plate is of steel, or 
iron faced with steel, and has a number of conical holes 
drilled through it, round, square, or triangular, according 
to the proposed section of the wire. 

The wire to be drawn is generally laid at one end of the 
bench, in a tub of beer-grounds, close by the draw-plate 



WIRE- BRA WING. 



73 



One end is filed to a point, and is passed through the 
plate far enough to be seized by a pair of pinchers or 
grips attached to a chain, which chain is itself made fast 
to a lever something like a pump-handle. By means of 
this it is drawn little by little through the largest hole in 
the plate, until a sufficient length is obtained for the 
grip of another pair of large nippers. The latter are also 




Fig. 13. 



attached to a chain, and are dragged forward by steam- 
power. The wire is thus forcibly drawn through the steel 
plate, and reduced to the size of the largest hole. Again 
and again it is brought back, and passes in turn through 
smaller and smaller holes, until it has attained the fineness 
required. It is, however, necessary to anneal it afresh 
after each drawing in precisely the same way in which it 
was annealed after leaving the rolls, namely, by heating 



74 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

it in closed cases, and allowing it to cool very gradually. 
At the last drawing, however, it is very frequently left 
bright and hard, as for some purposes it is better in this 
state. 

I have given the mere outline of wire-drawing in this 
chapter, but it will, I think, suffice to give my young 
readers an insight into this important manufacture. It 
may easily be conceived that for iron to stand all these 
processes without snapping off, the quality of the metal 
must be extremely good. This is the reason it is smelted 
with charcoal, as coal, which might be used instead, contains 
sulphur and arsenic, and other impurities, which render the 
iron more or less brittle and unequal in texture, and 
though suitable for other purposes, renders it utterly unfit 
for wire. 

At the time of our visit to Tintern steam had not 
usurped the place of water as a motive power, but the 
hand draw-plate was even then only used to get a suffi- 
cient length of wire to attach to the drum worked by 
powerful machinery. This is still its only practical use ; 
and indeed for this purpose it has for the most part been 
displaced by self-acting tongs, which are themselves drawn 
along the bench by a powerful chain, until enough wire 
has been dragged through the hole in the draw-plate to 
allow it to be taken hold of by the clip attached to the 
surface of the drums, which latter are now made to revolve 



WIRE-DRA WING. 7 5 

by steam-power alone. Watchmakers and goldworkers, 
who often need fine wire of the precious metals, draw down 
for themselves the coarser wire, merely placing a draw- 
plate in the vice, and pulling the metal through the various 
holes with a pair of pliers. In this way they easily obtain 
short lengths of half-round, triangular, or square sections, 
as required for various purposes of their trade. Wire made 
of brass or copper is treated in a similar manner to iron 
wire, so far as its general manufacture is concerned, any 
difference in detail being due to the peculiar nature and 
quality of the metal used. Zinc and lead are also now 
obtainable as wire, chiefly for horticultural use, as they are 
very convenient for tying up vine shoots, and training 
roses and other plants, the strength of the fingers sufficing 
to twist the metal without the intervention of pliers. 




Chapter V. 



BXASS TUBES. 




^~EW people would guess the mode in which brass 
tubes are made in the present day, still less 
would they suppose that the process of their 
manufacture is akin to wire-drawing, of which 
we treated in the last chapter ; yet so it is, and they can 
now be made either parallel or taper of almost any re- 
quired length, and as smooth internally as they are on 
the outside. A very little consideration will prove that 
a very large number of brass tubes are used in our 
various manufactures, as, for instance, in locomotive 
boilers, condensers, astronomical and philosophical in- 
struments, curtain - poles, gas - chandeliers, lamps, and 
so forth. In old times only one way of making these 
was known, namely, by folding thin sheets of brass over 
a mandrel or round bar, and soldering or brazing the 
seam. They are now made in vast quantities by casting 



BRASS TUBES. 77 



and drawing, so as to be wholly without seam, and can 
be made of any size required, down to one-fourth of an 
inch in diameter. Brass, it must be remembered, is a 
compound of copper and spelter (zinc), melted together 
in an air-furnace. The operation is one requiring great 
care, because zinc evaporates, and passes off as vapour, 
under a temperature that will not melt copper. The 
crucibles in which the melting is effected are therefore 
closely covered and secured by a plastering of clay. As 
soon as the copper is sufficiently hot to absorb the fumes 
of zinc, the two metals combine, and, it may be re- 
marked, metals thus combined frequently melt afterwards 
at a lower temperature than would have sufficed to liquefy 
the less fusible of them alone. This is the case with 
brass, which also improves in quality by being melted 
again and again. Consequently the founders always 
mix a certain proportion of old brass with the spelter 
and copper which is to form a new supply. 

To cast a hollow tube there are required a flask or iron 
box of the length of the tube, with a round recess or hole 
from end to end when closed, and also a core or cylinder, 
so laid that the metal may flow round it. The external 
surface of this core must have the form that the interior 
of the tube is to have : in the present case it will there- 
fore be cylindrical. 

In fig. 14, A is the flask closed, JB the core, C the 



7 8 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



interior of the half flask. The latter, when closed, is 
secured by iron clamps EE. The cores consist of a rod 
of iron upon which are layers of clay, or rather of sand 
and loam ground together in a mill, and made into a 
paste with water. The method of making these cores 
is simple, but exceedingly ingenious. The iron rod is 
supported at each end in what may be called two little 
iron forks, at the ends of a bench. The rods beino" 

7 o 




Fig. 14. 



squared at the right-hand end, a handle is slipped on, 
which is turned by a lad while a handful of hay is held 
against it, which is thus neatly coiled like a rope upon it, 
from end to end. The wet loam is then plastered on it as 
it continues to revolve, and is smoothed and rendered of 
the exact cylindrical form by bringing up against it the 
edge of a board which rests upon the bench behind it. 
When one coat of the loam is dry, another is put on, and 



BRAbS TUBES. 79 



the cores are ranged in a hot chamber, where they become 
sufficiently hard to bear the pressure of the heated metal. 
At one end of the flask is a recess to receive one end of 
the rod, the other resting in a similar recess at the 
opposite end, where room is also left for pouring the 
metal, which is done with the flasks placed upright. The 
end of the tube where the pouring took place is not 
generally so sound as the rest, and has also a kind of 
lip of metal attached ; but this is cut off by means of a 
circular saw before the next operation is begun ; and as 
boys like noise, this sawing ought to suit them exactly. 

The cores are of course broken to pieces in removing 
them from the tubes, and are ground up and mixed 
with fresh loam. The tubes, which are not very rough, 
are placed in a pickle or bath of sulphuric acid and water, 
which cleans the surface by dissolving a small portion of 
the metal. They are now ready for drawing, which is 
performed as follows : — A long bench of massive propor- 
tions has a broad and strong chain passing over rollers 
at each end of the bench, and continued underneath, 
where the ends are fastened together, so that it becomes 
one continuous band. The rollers are cogged, so that 
there can by no possibility be any chance of the chain 
slipping, and they are kept revolving by a steam-engine. 
At one end of this bench is an upright rest for a steel 
die, conical on the inside, the small part of the cone 



So AMONGST MA CHINES. 



being next to the bench. Through this die the tube 
has to be forcibly dragged. To effect this it is 
first placed on a mandrel turned for the purpose, with 
a shoulder near one end. Fig. 15 shows aa the 
tube slipped over the mandrel 55, cc the die in section. 
d is a cross-bar by which the mandrel is attached to a 
kind of clamp, so made that it will lay hold of the chain 
at any part on which it is placed. Thus, as the chain 
passes along the table the mandrel is carried with it, 




Fig 15. 



and the tube is forced to pass through the steel die, 
which reduces its size, and considerably lengthens it. 
By this operation the brass is rendered smooth, but 
very hard and brittle; and before it can be further re- 
duced it requires to be annealed, by placing it in a 
furnace, and heating it to a dull red, allowing it after- 
wards to cool very slowly. It is then drawn again 
through a smaller die, and so on until reduced to the 
required size. During these operations it will be lengthened 
perhaps from four feet to twelve or more, remaining in 



BRASS TUBES. 81 



all probability perfectly sound. This last point, however, 
is of great importance, and the tubes are tested by a jet 
of steam at fifty pounds' pressure admitted inside, while 
the ends are plugged, or by filling them with water at a 
similar pressure. Any flaw, even if invisible to the eye, 
is at once detected by the escape of the water or steam. 
During these operations the tubes very often become 
slightly bent, and they require to be straightened before 
being packed for the market. The straightening is rapidly 
done by a boy, who merely passes the tube through a hole 
in an upright post of wood, and presses it in the required 
direction. This seems but a clumsy mode of proceeding, 
and is in fact identical with that followed by the broom 
and mop handle makers. It is, however, not only 
perfectly effectual, but is, probably, the only way in 
which this work could be managed. Such is the process 
by which thousands of tons of solid tubing are made 
every year, ready to pass into the hands of those who 
give them their required form. A very large quantity 
are used for gas chandeliers and lamps, being variously 
chased and ornamented. Telescope tubes, which fit so 
exactly inside each other, show with what accuracy it 
is possible to draw the different sizes. If they are to 
be bent, as for cornopeans and other musical instruments, 
they are first filled with sand, or with soft solder that 
can be subsequently melted and poured out. 



8 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



IRON TUBING. 

Brass being far more costly than iron, the latter metal 
is also largely used for tubes, some of which are cast, 
such as stack pipes for house roofs and for gas ; but as 
these are brittle, and unsuited for purposes in which 
< toughness and strength are necessary, means have been 
discovered for welding them from plates or strips of 
wrought iron. It may, perhaps, not be known to our 
younger readers that the properties of iron in the con- 
ditions of cast and wrought are very different. The 
first breaks easily, and the fractured parts reveal an 
aggregation of bright crystalline grains, coarse or fine, 
according to quality. By remelting, puddling, hammer- 
ing, and rolling, these crystals become drawn out into 
fibres, the metal becomes tough and malleable, and may 
be drawn into wire, beaten or rolled into thin plates, and 
welded — that is, at a heat a little below that which would 
burn the iron it will unite under the hammer, and be as 
sound at the joint as elsewhere. Iron in this state can- 
not be remelted ; but when raised to a high temperature 
it burns, and throws off showers of brilliant sparks. There 
is, however, a peculiar property which belongs to wrought 
iron which is not so generally known, except to engineers 
and men of science. A bar, suspended and continually 
hammered, so as to keep up constant vibration, will pass 



IRON TUBING. 83 



into a partially crystalline condition, and break — some- 
times falling apart spontaneously. In railway bridges 
the wrought-iron girders sometimes attain a similar state 
from the vibration produced by passing trains, and 
accidents have not been unfrequent from this weakening 
of the structure. 

The iron for tubes must be of good quality, and is rolled 




Pig. 16.— Bevelling. 
CThe drawing of the flat chain does not show the links sufficiently open.) 

first into sheets, which are afterwards cut to size between 
slitting rollers. It is now necessary to bevel each edge 
somewhat, that when welded there may be no raised seam. 
This is effected by dragging the strip, by means of a flat 
chain with a clamp attached, between a pair of tools fixed 
inside two strong uprights which rise from the bench at 
one end (fig. 16). The bench itself is very similar in 



8 4 



AMONGST MA CHINES. 



appearance to that used for drawing brass tubes, as already 
described. The iron is now ready to be folded, being up to 
this time merely a long flat plate. First it is subjected to 
the action of a kind of hammer with a convex face below, 
similar to Hg. 17, the plate lying upon a hollow bed, which 
represents a mould of the lower half of the tube. By this 
operation it is made to assume a semi-cylindrical form. 




Kg. 17. 



Further hammering lays the two edges neatly together 
from end to end, the bevelled parts overlapping. The 
tube now has to be welded, which is very ingeniously 
managed. The difficulties that had to be contended with 
were great. It was necessary to have a rod or mandrel 
inside to bear the strokes of the hammer, or the pressure 
of the rollers used instead of hammers ; but having welded 



IRON TUBING. 85 



a tube upon such a bar, the difficulty of withdrawing it 
would be insurmountable. Moreover, a welding heat must 
be kept up until the whole seam is complete and sound. 
These difficulties have been met as follows : — The folded 



Pig. 18.— Furnace and Rolls. 



tube is placed in a long furnace (fig. 18), the seam having 
been previously sprinkled with' sand, which, melting and 
forming a glaze upon it, prevents in a great measure both 
sealing and burning. 



86 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

Close to the mouth of the furnace are a pair of rollers, 
set in motion by steam, with grooves or channels upon 
their surfaces, which together form a round hole of 
the exact size of the intended tube. These form the 
compressing power by which the weld is made. The 
mandrel for the inside consists of an iron rod considerably 
less in size than the tube, but on the extremity is a short 
piece which fits the inside of the tube. This is placed 
between the rollers, so that as the tube is drawn from 
the furnace it must of necessity pass over it. But as this 
mandrel fits the tube, it would be carried along with k as 
it emerges from the rollers. To prevent this, two men 
with sledge-hammers keep on hammering the other end of 
the rod to which it is attached, so as to keep the mandrel 
in the right position between the rollers, and prevent it 
from being jammed and fixed in the tube. The last blow 
given drives it out of the end, when the process is com- 
plete. It is very rapidly performed ; and the tubes are 
so arranged that the moment the mandrel is withdrawn 
from one, there is another at welding heat ready to be 
operated on. These iron tubes are used in boilers and 
elsewhere instead of brass, when the latter metal rises 
considerably in price, as is very often the case. 

There is one notable peculiarity in the manufacture of 
iron and brass in the present day which steam has enabled 
us to adopt, viz., the use of rollers instead of hammers 



IRON TUBING. 87 



for forging. There is, indeed, a steam-hammer of 
stupendous size commonly used in ironworks, but it is 
adapted for the heavier and more massive objects, as, for 
instance, anchor-making, and welding the huge coils of 
iron for the Armstrong guns. It is also used to reduce 
the blocks of iron from the puddling-f urn aces to thick 
plates, as well as for many other purposes. There is also 
a steam-hammer or forge, giving almost any number of 
light blows per minute, which is used at the Small Arms 
Manufactory near Birmingham, and at Enfield, and I dare- 
say at many other places. I cannot now recall its name, 
but it is a very clever piece of machinery, and rattles 
away at an amazing pace, wholly superseding for some 
purposes the hand-hammers previously used. The roller 
system is, however, far more serviceable for work such as 
I have described, because we have only to turn grooves of 
any desired shape on the surfaces of the rollers, and then 
any bar, rod, or tube made to pass between them as they 
revolve (the metal being, of course, softened first of all 
by heat) must receive an outside or superficial form 
agreeing with the shape of the grooves. All the rails, of 
whatever form, used for the permanent way of railways 
are thus rolled, and could not be formed otherwise ; 
because if they were cast in moulds, the metal would be 
quite brittle, whereas if formed by rolling, it is fibrous, and 
exceedingly tough. 



88 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

The " roller system," as it may well be called, has in 
fact of late years swept out of the way many older con- 
trivances, and is so simple and so effective that it will 
always keep its place in our manufactures. It is now used 
in printing-presses to give impressions of the type — the 
paper passing over one set of rollers and under another as 
they revolve above the forme, or frame in which the type 
lies, so that both sides are printed almost simultaneously. 
The forme passes to and fro under other rollers whose 
surfaces are charged with ink, while another set deliver 
the paper in sheets at one side of the machine. Calicoes 
are similarly printed, by passing over and under rollers on 
which the required pattern has been embossed. Paper, too, 
which is composed of pulp made from rags, straw, and 
other substances, is first of all little else but a sheet of 
thin and loose felt ; but as it passes in its course between 
rollers which press out the water, it gradually becomes 
drier and more compact, and is eventually wound off on 
another roller in one continuous and firm sheet, which is 
afterwards cut and sized, and otherwise finished, as may be 
required. If the illuminated or ornamented paper is needed 
for wall-decoration, this is also now done in the same way 
as the calico is printed, whereas in old times it was 
entirely worked by hand with square blocks on which the 
pattern was carved. These were covered with a layer of 
the necessary colour, and pressed on the fabric, great care 



IRON TUBING. 89 



being necessary, in applying consecutive blocks, to produce 
a continuous pattern without apparent joins or seams. 

I believe that corrugated iron, now used so largely for 
roofs and portable bouses, as also perforated zinc, in which 
there is a continuous repetition of the same pattern, is 
made by passing the metal, in the first case, between 
rollers with grooved or wavy surfaces, and in the second, 
between pairs of rollers with pins of any desired form in 
the one, and similar indentations in the other, which 
would be, in fact, continuous punching, And in every 
similar case where a pattern is to be repeated again and 
again upon long sheets and strips of metal, rollers afford 
the readiest method of producing the work. It is pro- 
bable that the use of rollers for corrugating and fluting 
metal was suggested by the crimping-irons of the laun- 
dress, which consisted of two rollers made hollow to 
contain heaters, and fluted on their outer surfaces ; these, 
turning in contact with each other, frilled or corrugated 
the material as it passed between them. There are many 
other manufactures in which rollers are similarly employed, 
but these suffice to show their general application. More- 
over, one great advantage is that the machinery to actuate 
them is of the simplest character, and not liable to get 
out of order ; and there is no shock in their use, and 
consequently no excess of wear and tear. The shock of 
stamping machinery, on the other hand, is always great, 



90 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

and the expense involved in repairs proportionally heavy. 
Our readers should try and visit some one of the various 
ironworks and rolling-mills in the Black Country in the 
north of England, and they would thus see for themselves 
the prodigious power obtained by machinery of the above 
character. It requires a painting to give any idea of the 
effect of the iron furnaces and large works of the kind; 
the pen and graver are powerless to give it expression. 





Chapter VI. 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 




EFORE entering further upon mechanical pro- 
cesses, it will be as well to explain the prin- 
ciples upon which all machinery is constructed, 
whatever its special object may be. It was 
indeed my intention to leave this for a concluding 
chapter, but " second thoughts are best," as people say, 
and I shall place it here instead. As people say, is 
nevertheless hardly a safe dictum, and I am by no means 
sure that second thoughts are best, as a rule. With some 
rusty, crusty people, who have to think at least twice before 
they can make up their minds to give a copper to the 
poor, or with some irritable, bilious, old fogies who are 
always imagining that people want to insult them, and 
who immediately let fly the topmost word from their 
internal reservoir of growls, second thoughts are best — at 
any rate, they cannot well be worse than the first. Not 
so with noble-minded, generous -hearted boys, always 



92 AM0NGS1" MA CHINES. 

ready to do a kindness without counting the cost. I like 
a boy who cannot always stay to balance pros and cons, 
but with whom kindnesses are ever ready, waiting oppor- 
tunity only for their exercise. With these, first thoughts 
and first impulses are decidedly the best, although a cold 
world may pronounce against their wisdom. It is better 
to give to a humbug than to refuse a genuine object of 
charity ; better once in a way to feel that you have been 
"done" than to find out that you have failed to do a 
kind action from too nicely arguing with yourself the 
worldly wisdom of the same. If the heart is good and 
honest and free, depend upon it good and Christian im- 
pulses are upward; and I say, boys, never check them, 
but let them tumble out as they will, and don't wait for 
second thoughts. 

Mechanical arrangements, however, do require second 
thoughts — ay, and third and fourth, and many more. Much 
consideration and deep study is often needed before the 
crude idea, however excellent, can be worked out into a 
practical form. The first necessity is a knowledge of the 
principles of levers and cams and eccentrics, and suchlike; 
what they will do, and what no contrivance will make 
them do. Scores of otherwise rational, and even clever 
people, have spent time and toil and money in trying to 
circumvent mechanical laws, and compel 1 lb. to act like 
2 lb., or a 6-foot lever to become alternately, as regards 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 93 

its power, 6 feet and 3 feet, and thus, as they fondly hope, 
startle mankind with "perpetual motion." But, boys, 
it is no use to work at any such fallacy ; and when it 
is considered that the Almighty Himself made all the 
laws of nature, physical laws and mechanical laws 
alike, it is not the least likely that any human being 
will be able to upset them, and it can only be folly to 
attempt it. 

We will begin with levers, which are nothing but rigid 
bars, straight or curved, as the case may be, but absolutely 
inflexible — that is, cannot be bent. Now this, to begin 
with, is a theory that cannot be wholly carried out, 
because levers do bend ; but you must for the present 
suppose that they do not. 

Let the line AB (fig. 19) represent a straight bar of iron or 
wood turning on the point C, m, jjb 

which may be the upper edge y £ ^g 5 

of a stone, or anything else -efe\^ 

that will support it in a 

similar way. If the part AC is exactly the length of CB, 
like the arms of a pair of scales, it will require a force of 
1 lb. applied at A to lift a weight of 1 lb. resting on B. 
Here, therefore, you get no advantage in the way of 
power, only perhaps it may be more convenient to pull 
down A than to lift up B. It is frequently so in machinery. 
Now let AC (fig. 20) be twice the length of CB, and 



94 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

let 1 lb. still lie on B. You will now find — for you 
should prove this for yourselves — that a force or weight 
of \ lb. at A will raise the weight. Here you have gained 
apparently a great deal of power, and practically you 
have done so. 

But let us go a step farther. Suppose you have to 
raise the weight 1 foot high, you will find that it will be 
necessary to depress the longest end of your lever 2 feet. 

A c B^ exactly double the 

l 2 m% : 

/\ lib, distance. Hence you 

. may say it took \ lb. 

O of weight or power to 

TSIO. 

Pig. 20.— Lever. raise the weight the 

first 6 inches, and -^ lb. to raise it the other 6, and in 
reality you have used a power of 1 lb. to raise 1 lb. In 
short, take it as a standing rule that you cannot create 
power. All you can do is to make the most convenient 
use of such power as you have. 

Now put the fulcrum or support of your lever in a 
different place. Let the bar rest with one end on such 
support, and hang the weight as before, Hg. 21. One pound 
applied at A will lift 3 lb. suspended at B ; but to raise 
the weight 1 foot, the end of the longest arm will have 
to rise 3 feet. So that here again the apparent gain of 
power is a fallacy. 

But why in the second case is the apparent gain three to 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



95 



one, and in the first case two to one ? Simply because 
the rule of leverage is this : — The power to be applied 
is to the weight to be raised exactly in proportion to the 
distance of the weight from the fulcrum compared with 
the distance of the power from the fulcrum. Or if we 
regard it as a question of balance, which is perhaps the 




Big. 2L —Lever. 



A* 



easiest way — " The weight {or resistance) multiplied by its 
distance from the fulcrum must equal the power multiplied 
by its distance from the fulcrum. 

Thus in the first case, which is a lever of the first 
kind, we have a weight or resistance of 1 lb. at a distance 
of 1 foot from the fulcrum, and 1x1 = 1. We have a 
power of -^ lb. applied at a distance of 2 feet from the 



96 AMONGST MACHINES. 

fulcrum, and \ x 2 = 1. In the second case, which is a level 
of the second order, we have the weight of 3 lb, at 1 foot 
from the fulcrum, and 3x1 = 3, therefore we need a power 
of 1 lb. at 3 feet from the fulcrum (1x3 = 3). I have 
treated lifting-power and balancing-power as the same 
thing, but of course a little more power has to be used to 
produce motion. We have in addition to these levers 
another of the third order, in which the power is nearer 
the fulcrum than the resistance or weight. In this case, 
we have more work laid upon us, for the leverage is 
against us. 

Let us again suppose a 3-lb. weight hung at B (fig. 22). 




3 o 



7\ 




Fig. 22.— Lever. 



It is 3 feet from the fulcrum, and 3x3 = 9. The power is ap- 
plied at a distance of 1 foot from the fulcrum, we therefore 
shall require a force of 9 lb. (9 x 1 = 9) in order to get the 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 97 



balance correct as before ; that is, the leverage is as three 
to one against us. But this loss is not without its equivalent 
gain, for whereas in the previous cases we had to move 
the power through a long distance to raise the weight a 
little way, we now have only to move the power a short 
distance to raise the weight a long one, and in the same 
proportion. So that levers neither create power nor lose 
it, but only supply means for the convenient application 
of it. You must notice the real difference between these 
three kinds of levers, and I think you will thoroughly 
comprehend this first prime law of mechanics. In levers 
of the first order the power is on one side of the fulcrum, 
and the resistance on the other. In the second, both are 
on the same side, but the resistance is nearest to the 
fulcrum. In the third, power and resistance are still on 
the same side, but the power is nearest to the fulcrum. 
Now for a step further. 

Let us try two or three levers in combination and see 
the result. Here in fig, 
23 A we have two levers B < 



A .0 

c 

-ft = * 



Jig. 23.— Lever. 



both with equal arms, 
these may be any length, 
and it is not necessary 
that both should be a- 
like, but the arms of the first are to be equal, and like- 
wise those of the second. Then a pressure of 1 lb. 



98 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

at B will raise 1 lb. at C, or press the arm of the 
second lever upwards with a force of 1 lb., and the other 
arm will be pressed down with equal force, raising 1 lb. 
suspended, as shown. There is no gain here in any way, 
but again, in machines, and notably in the key action of 
organs, double levers like this are very much used ; and 
wherever we have not room to make use of a single 
long lever, this combination will be very convenient. 
But this will be more apparent when instead of equal 
armed levers we use those which form levers of the first 
or second order, as in the following combination. 

Here (fig. 24) E is a cord, CD is a stiff rod. Keeping- 
still the same length of lever as before, 1 lb. pressure on the 
HI upper and longer arm will 

raise 2 lb. at E, pulling up 
the long arm of the second 



^r 



Pig 1 . 24. — Lever. 



lever with that force. This 
If will push down D with a 
(ejp force of 4 lb. and a weight 

of 8 lb. will be raised at F. 
To have effected this with a single lever, we should have 
required one 8 feet long, suspended or supported at one 
foot from the furthest end. The rule before set down of 
course will apply here. The weight is 8 lb. at 1 foot from 
the fulcrum, 8x1 = 8. The power is 1 lb. x 2 = 2 ; 2 lb. 
X 2 =4; 4 lb. X 2 — 8 ; the sum of the powers equalling 
the sum of the resistances. 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



99 



Now, I daresay my young readers will not at first see 
the similarity between cogwheels and levers, yet, as 
mechanical powers, they are identical. 

A wheel mounted on an axle is in fact only a perpetual 
or continuous lever, of which the axle is the fulcrum. 
If we make our wheel with spokes we shall see this 
quite clearly. As the axle is generally in the centre 
of the wheel, we shall not gain any leverage by merely 
allowing one to work into the other, unless we also make 
some special arrangements. 

Here in fig. 25 is a large wheel working into a small 
one, which last is called a 
pinion. The spokes a, c, b, 
e, d, including the cogs, 
are, as you will at once see, 
only our old friends, levers of 
equal arms of the first order. 
1 lb. suspended at a, will 
balance one at b; and one 
at b, the end of the spoke of the small wheel, will 
balance one at the end d. 

But though a wheel is of necessity a lever of equal 
arms, we can make it practically a means of power ; 
and with this further advantage that the power is con- 
tinuous. In fig. 26, the large circle represents a wheel; 
let it be 24 inches across, from A to D. 




(g) 

Fig. 25.— Cogwheel*. 



IOO 



AMONGST MA CHINES. 



Fixed to it let there be a small pulley BC, or let BO 
represent a stout axle. Now we thus obtain a lever AC, 
moving on a fulcrum B ; but AB is much longer than 
BC, say four times as long, then by our old rule a weight 

D, of 1 lb. hanging from it, will 
balance a weight of 4 lb. suspend- 
ed from C, and if the cords are 
wound round the wheels, we can 
by uncoiling the one, using a con- 
tinual force of a little over 1 lb., 
wind up the second with its weight 
of 4 lb. This facility of continuing 
the power over an unlimited space 
gives to the wheel and axle its 
advantage over a simple straight bar. Each spoke, in fact, 
becomes a lever in turn, and we can imagine these so close 
together that there is no cessation of their action. 

In the next combination, represented in fig. 27, we have 
again compound levers. The pinions or small wheels are 
fixed to the axles of the larger ones, so as to revolve with 
them. Let the first wheel AE be 4 feet diameter, and the 
small one fixed to it 1 foot diameter. This works into the 
edge of the second wheel, which is, we will suppose, 2 feet, 
and carries on its axle a pinion of 6 inches. The first lever 
will be AD, turning on its fulcrum C ; the long arm will 
be 2 feet long, the short one 6 inches. Therefore a power 




Fig. 26. 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



101 



of 1 lb. at A will become four times as great at D, the cir- 
cumference of the pinion (for 4x6 =*24 inches or 2 feet). 
This force, thus already quadrupled and therefore equal to 
4 lb., is applied (by moving the wheel) to the long arm of 
the lever DGr turning on the fulcrum F (the axle of the 
second wheel), and as the 
pinion is only 6 inches 
diameter, the short arm of 
the second lever is but 3 
inches. The power is there- 
fore again quadrupled and 
becomes equal to 16 lb., 
which is the weight bal- 
anced at the end of the 
second lever. Thus, so 
long as motion is con- 
tinued we gain in the 
proportion of 16 to 1, 
and in the simplest man- ®/Z3 
ner possible. You can 
always get at the proportion of power to resistance in 
wheels and pinions by sketching only the spokes which 
lie in a horizontal direction, and considering them so 
many levers acting upon each other. But the similarity 
between wheels and levers does not end here, as we 
6hall see presently; for if we gain apparently a power 




Fig. 27. 



io2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

of 16 to 1, you may rest assured we have exercised 
that power through a distance sixteen times as great 
as that through which we have raised the weight ; 
and if the weights are suspended from ropes coiled 
round the rims of the wheels, we shall have uncoiled 
no less than 16 feet to raise the weight 1 foot. 
There is positively no way of circumventing this me- 
chanical law. We will not continue this just now, 
but speak of velocity or speed. Ah! perhaps here we 
shall be able to manage better, and really gain something ! 
Not a bit of it ! the moment we increase speed we lose 
power, and if we have only a given force to work with, 
and have to raise a weight many times greater, we shall 
find it possible to attain that end only by doing our work 
very slowly indeed. Keeping, however, this law before us, 
we may arrange so that a child may raise a ton. 

A wheel of 2 feet diameter, working into one of 6 
inches, will evidently turn it round four times, while 
itself makes but one rotation, the cogs being supposed 
to be in number as 24 to 6, or 4 to 1- Dispensing with 
cogs, and allowing the wheels simply to touch, and thus 
move by " rolling contact," as it is called, the same rate 
of motion will be obtained, and the surfaces thus in con- 
tact represent what is called the pitch line upon which 
the cogs are set out. If we could prevent slipping, the 
rolling contact would be preferable to cogs ; and there 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 103 

are some machines in which it is used. Of course it is 
a perfectly silent action, whereas that obtained by cogs 
is very noisy. 

Now, if you take any one point on the circumference 
of each of your two wheels (or wheel and pinion), and 
measure from it, quite round the wheels, you will find 
the length about three times the diameter, in this case 6 
feet and 18 inches respectively. The end of your lever, 
therefore, will make a circular journey of 6 feet, and in 
so doing will move the end of the short lever also 6 
feet ; but the latter will have to run at a much higher 
rate of speed to accomplish its distance in the same 
time — like the child, taking perhaps three steps to one 
to keep pace with its father's strides. 

Another rule of mechanics which both the lever and 
the train of wheels exemplifies is this, To gain power 
you must be content to sacrifice speedy and if you gain speed 
you lose power. I shall conclude this chapter with a 
drawing of a train of wheels (fig. 28), which I think 
will make this quite clear. 

In this figure let A, B, C, be three wheels of equal size — 
say 2 feet diameter, or 6 feet in circumference — and let the 
two pinions D, E, be each 6 inches diameter, or 18 inches 
in circumference. The last has a handle H attached at 
the extreme edge to give motion, and we will apply here 
a force of 10 lb. ; as the pinion is one-fourth the size of 



£04 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



the wheel, we must at once multiply 10 by 4, which is the 
power applied at the circumference of the second wheel. 
This again multiplied by 4 gives 160 lb. applied at the 
circumference of the third, and if this last has an axle of 
6 inches diameter from which a weight is suspended, we 




Fig. 23.— Train of Wheels. 



may again multiply by 4 and find that 640 lb. may thus 
be raised. The power gained is thus very great, but let 
us inquire as to speed. 

While the first wheel is turned once by its handle 
carrying its own pinion once round, the latter will only 
move the second wheel one-fourth of the way round ; its 
pinion will therefore likewise move only that distance : 
or, if the large wheels have eighty teeth and the pinions 
twenty, one turn of the first will have only caused the 
6econd to advance one-fourth of eighty, or twenty teeth. 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 105 

and its own pinion five teeth. As these five teeth are in 
gear with the next wheel, this will have moved but five 
teeth, or just one-sixteenth of its circumference. Its axle 
is 18 inches in circumference, and this will have likewise 
moved only one-sixteenth of its way round (or revolution), 
or one-sixteenth of 18 inches, i.e., -rl^lj inch, which is 
the height the weight will rise during each revolution of 
the handle. The distance the latter has moved, of course, 
equals the circumference of the wheel to which it is fixed. 
It has moved 6 feet, or 72 inches, in order to raise the 
weight 1J inch. 

Now see once more how nicely our principle of levers 
works out and balances. We applied a power of 10 lb. 
and it raised 640 lb., or sixty-four times its own weight. 
But this power travelled 6 feet, or 72 inches, to raise the 
said weight 1J inch. If you work out the sum you will 
find that 72 is just sixty-four times 1 J inch, thus — 
11 inch = f , and 72 inches = "£ 

We can knock off the denominators, as they are equal, 
and we have 

9)576(64 
54 

36 
36 

There is nothing more beautiful than the way in which 
the balance of leverage works out in all cases. If you 



1 06 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

gain ten times in power, you lose ten times in speed, and 
vice versd ; and if you can get over this and gain power 
and speed at once, you will not find it so exceedingly 
difficult to obtain — perpetual motion, — but that little 
word "If "I 




Chapter VII. 



MECHANICAL POWERS* 




[LTHOUGH a great number of mechanical ex- 
pedients are but combinations or peculiar 
arrangements of levers, there are one or two 
others that I think should be illustrated before 
going into further details. The first is the wedge. This 
consists of one or two inclined planes, and when an 
inclined plane is made continuous and coiled about a 
cylinder we obtain a screw, one of the most generally 
serviceable of all these powers. 

Let us inquire into the peculiarities therefore of the 
inclined plane. Here it is in iig. 29, A, B, C. This 
may represent a board at an inclination, for purposes 
of experiment, or a hill ; and I want to make it clear to 
yon that in walking up that hill, you do precisely the 
same amount of work, whether you walk up the long 
plane AC, or the shorter and steeper one AD, or get 



io8 



AMONGST MA CHINES. 



up BA as best you can. You have, in short, in all 
cases, to raise a certain weight — that of your body — or 
a stone, or something else, from B to A. Now, I will 
venture to say that if the path AC were a winding 
path round a hill with gradual ascent, and AD a steep 
and awkward path by bush and tree, you boys would gc 
up the latter, and I, the old fogey, should decidedly go 




Fig. 29.— Inclined Plane. 



the longer round ; anyhow, we should lift our bodies the 
height AB, but I should expend a little power over a 
long distance, and you would expend greater power over 
a short distance, which is uncommonly like what we 
discovered about the levers in our last chapter. To 
understand the nature of this mechanical power, suppose 
a weight of 10 lb. to rest on a level board, its effective 
weight would be 10 lb. Now, if you were able to raise 



MECHANICAL POWERS. 109 

the board to a vertical position (placing it on its end) 
without allowing the weight to fall from its surface, such 
weight, as regards its pressure upon the board, would be 
nothing. The first case is shown at A 1 , the second at B 2 . 
Then it stands to reason that the nearer the board lies 
to the level position the more weight it bears, and the 
nearer it is to the vertical the less. Thus it will bear 
more weight at D than it does at C. If I were now to 
tie a string to weight placed at the bottom of B, and 
lift that weight by its means the height of the plank, 
I should simply lift the whole weight, exerting a power 
of 10 lb. without any assistance derived from the t)oard, 
which might as well not be there at all. But if I were 
to put the same weight on the board and incline it as 
at C, the board would bear a portion of the 10 lb., and I 
should have to exert less power ; or if, lastly, the board 
were very slightly inclined, it would carry more of the 
weight, and I should have less to raise. In all practical 
cases of friction (or rubbing) between two, the surface 
has to come under consideration, as it forms an element 
of resistance, but this may be neglected in such a mere 
sketch of science as the present. Obviously, then, the 
more gentle the inclination of the board, the more it 
assists me in raising a weight to the highest end of it, 
because it relieves me of a portion of that weight. That 
there is a simple rule in the matter, the foregoing remarks 



no 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



will abundantly show, and these we will now investigate. 
Fig. 30 represents a plane raised at one end 10 feet, 
the sloping surface of it being 100 feet in length. At 
every 10 feet we may draw a perpendicular line, and by 
drawing horizontal ones to meet these we make ten steps, 
and evidently the rise or height of each will be 1 foot, 
as the whole ten make up together a rise of 10 feet. 
As long as we are on the level of the steps, the weight 
is wholly supported, and it is only at the perpendiculars, 





Tig. 30.— Inclined Plane. 

or " risers," that we must lift our 10 lb. ; we shall there- 
fore lift it 1 foot, and repeat this ten times, which is 
the same as lifting it 10 feet at once. The former 
would be certainly far easier. Doing away now with 
the steps, but keeping the incline, the weight, at any 
given point on that incline, exercises one-tenth of its 
entire pressure, or 1 lb., and, with a plane constructed as 
here, a force of 1 lb. would balance its weight; but we 
drag our 1 lb. 100 feet, 1 x 100 = 100, or we may without 
the plane lift the 10 lb. 10 feet, 10 x 10 = 100. 



MECHANICAL POWERS. in 

If you make a little truck which will run easily upon 
a pair of miniature rails, and arrange your incline by 
hinging it at the angle so that you can raise or lower it, 
you can prove this by experiment ; but remember you will 
require rather more than the calculated weight to over- 
come the friction, because, however smooth your rails 
and well made your truck, it will not run quite easily. 
Upon a level rail a truck of 1 ton weight can be theo- 
retically moved by a power of 8 lb., practically it may 
need 10 or 12, or even more. We have, however, now 
attained a standard or unit of work for the inclined plane. 
The weight multiplied by the height, together representing 
the resistance, will equal the power multiplied by the 
length of the plane. Here it is as stated, 10 lb. x 10 feet 
= 1 lb. x 100 feet. 

The wedge as commonly made consists of two such 
planes, but the rule is here, again, that the less the in- 
clination of its sides the greater is the power, or the 
longer it is in proportion to its thickness the easier will 
the work be done by its means. 

I should state here that the above calculations are true 
only when the power is exercised in a line parallel to the 
incline — as, for instance, by means of the rope in the 
drawing; and remember also that the direction of the 
weight borne by an inclined plane is perpendicular to the 
surface of that plane. In B, of this figure, for example, 




1 1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

the direction of it is shown by the dotted line. In like 
manner the direction of the force of a wedge C (fig. 31) 

is perpendicular to its sides, 
which force tends to split the 
block into which it is driven. 
The whole question, however, 
of the " resolution of forces," 
m & 31 - is one too complicated for full 

discussion in these pages. We shall now therefore pro- 
ceed to turn the wedge into a continuous force by making it 
into a screw, just as we converted the lever into a wheel. 
If we cut out of paper an inclined plane 3 inches in 
height and 9 inches long, not on the base but on the 
inclined part, and wind it round a cylinder, we make a 
> crew. This is, in fact, a spiral ascent round a steep hill. 
It makes no difference whether we wind it once round a large 
cylinder or many times round a small one, we still ascend 
an incline of 3 in 9, or 1 in 3, which is called the pitch 
of the screw. If you ever went to the top of the monu- 
ment on London Bridge, or up a high church steeple, you 
know how delightful it is thus to screw your way upwards ; 
and I suppose it is the tortuous walk of a drunkard that 
has suggested the term of " being screwed" — a widespread 
blot in the world, of which no genuine mechanical boy has 
ever borne the stain. Why a miser should be called an old 
screw is less clear. It is no doubt, however, a long and 



MECHANICAL POWERS. 



"3 



tortuous path from the bottom of his pocket to its open 
mouth. The nature of the screw as a mechanical power 
will be easiest understood from noticing one or two appli- 
cations of it. To make use of it we always require a nut, 
or block in which an internal thread is cut of the same 
pitch as the screw ; and having this, we can use either as 
the actual source of power. For if the screw is so fixed 




Pig. 32.— Screw. 

that it cannot move endwise, it will, if turned, draw the nut 
along; or if the latter is fixed, and the screw permitted to 
travel lengthwise, the latter may be used as the interpreter 
of power, as in fig. 32, where, if we fix the nut and cause 
the screw to revolve, we can use the latter to raise the 
heavy stone. The screw-jack for lifting weights is con- 
structed on this principle, and is in daily use by engineers 



H4 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

and mechanics. The rule is, that the finer the screw the 
greater will be its power. This we should expect, because 
a fine screw uncoiled would represent an inclined plane of 
great length in proportion to its height. A screw of the 
supposed pitch of one in three would do exactly the work 
of a wedge of the same dimensions in raising a given 
weight to a certain height. You might place the stone 
upon a platform D, free to rise perpendicularly by being 
passed through guide-bars, and by pushing the wedge 
along upon its base you would raise the stone. The little 
friction-wheel would be added in practice to reduce the 
resistance. But when great power is required, a very long 
and gently-inclined plane would be needed, which would 
in most cases be exceedingly inconvenient to use in 
practice. It is therefore wound round a cylinder, and 
converted into a screw, which takes up less room ; and this, 
too, being turned by a lever-handle, a second power is 
brought into use, so that we can readily overcome heavy 
resistance in the form of weights or otherwise, as the case 
may be. 

Now we come to the rule by which to calculate the 
power of a screw, and it is of course exactly that of the 
inclined plane. The total height to which the weight is 
to be raised multiplied by that weight, equals the power 
multiplied by the length of thread or the whole incline or 
spiral. In other words, as the height of the inclined plane 



MECHANICAL POWERS. 115 

wrapped once round a cylinder represents the pitch from 
thread to thread, and the length of the plane is the cir- 
cumference of the cylinder, the distance between the 
threads (or pitch) multiplied by the weight, must equal 
the circumference of the cylinder multiplied by the power, 
expressed in inches or feet, or otherwise ; and hence, the 
less the pitch the greater will be the power. 

The screw is used in many ways in addition to that of 
lifting weights, one common application being to move 
the slide-rests of self-acting lathes. These, which are 
arranged to carry the tool, slide the whole length of the 
lathe-bed, and the motion is produced as follows : To the 
under-side of the rest, which either projects between the 
bearers or hangs down in front, there is attached a screw- 
nut, which, however, is sawn into two parts that can be 
opened or brought together by a lever. Through this 
nut passes a screw, which lies along the lathe-bed from 
end to end, and turns in bearings which only allow it to 
rotate, but not otherwise to move. To one end of the 
screw a cogwheel is attached, which gears with others 
put in motion by the lathe itself. The result is, that 
when the screw rotates upon its axis it carries the nut, 
and with it the rest, along ; but upon pressing the lever 
which opens and closes the two halves of the nut, the 
latter is released, and no further motion of the rest takes 
place Great power not being necessary in this case, the 



1 16 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

screw is cut with only two, three, or four threads to the 
inch, and of course it then requires two, three, or four 
revolutions to move the slide-rest (and with it the cutting 
tool) that distance. Sometimes, instead of a regular 
thread, either square or V-shaped, the cylinder has a 
groove traced spirally upon its surface, and into this a 
single pin, or perhaps two or three pins, arranged on a 
sliding bar, fall. On causing the screw to revolve, the 
pins are compelled to advance, and carry the bar along 
in a vertical, horizontal, or other direction parallel to the 
length of the screw. For a V-threaded screw, a mere row 
of similar notches in a flat bar are sometimes used as a 
nut, or a half nut only is used, but the action is similar 
in all cases. 

I have sketched some of these arrangements in fig. 
33. 

The screw is so extremely valuable an arrangement of 
mechanical power, that an enormous amount of expense 
and labour has been expended in order to cut it perfectly. 
It is, among other uses, invaluable in telescopes, micro- 
scopes, and philosophical instruments, as affording means 
of providing motion in any direct direction in the minutest 
degree. In many mechanical contrivances, as, for example, 
in ornamental turning, it is necessary to move a point or 
tool so small a distance as the j^ or even xo~Vo" P art °^ 
an inch. In astronomical instruments, for purposes of 



MECHANICAL POWERS. 



"7 



measurement, the 10000 of an inch is not uncommon.* 
These are readily obtained by the use of the screw. Let 
there be one cut with ten threads to the inch, and let the 
head of this be marked with ten equal divisions. One 
whole turn will move the nut, to which we may suppose 
a pointer attached, ^ of an inch ; and if the screw itself 
is turned only one division of its head, instead of one 




iiiilii' 




Fig. 33.— Screw-gearing. Nuts, (fee. 

complete turn, the movement will be only ^^ of an inch. 
A movement of half a division will result in an advance 
of xoVo > anc ^ u 7 combining screws, by means of change 
wheels, so that a whole turn of one shall cause another to 
move ^ or yj^, still more minute subdivisions may be 



* In Sir Joseph Whitworth's workshop 1,000,000th of an inch is measured 
by meacs of the screw. 



1 1 8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

measured. Whenever, in short, we require a slow equal 
movement in a certain direction, whether for parts of 
machines or for measuring distances, the screw generally 
supplies the need more readily and with greater accuracy 
than any other contrivance. It is, however, exceedingly 
difficult to make a screw perfectly alike from end to end, 
especially if of slow pitch, or with many threads in a given 
length. 

There is only one other recognised mechanical power 
which it is necessary to speak of before going into details 
of actual machines, viz., the pulley. Here again we shall 
find what all nations seek after, and seek too often in vain, 
a perfect balance of power. A pulley consists of a sheave 
or round wheel grooved on its edge, and turning on an 
axle, which is generally fixed in a block, but may of 
course be otherwise placed. Pulleys serve first of all to 
change the direction of power, and secondly to increase it. 
In fig. 34, A is a simple pulley, which is being used for 
the first purpose. The power is applied to the weight, 
through the flexible cord, and its direction is required to 
be perpendicularly upwards. But the human body is so 
constituted that it is easier to raise a weight by a down- 
ward than an upward pull, because the weight of the 
body itself can in the latter case be brought into action. 
We therefore pass the weight over a pulley, and draw the 
cord downwards. Here is no gain of power, but in some 



MECHANICAL POWERS. 



119 



degree a loss, because of the friction of the rope, and of 
the sheave of the pulley upon its axle. Theoretically, as 
before, disregarding the question of friction, a power of 
] lb. applied in any direction will raise the weight of 
1 lb. But we can, nevertheless, so arrange pulleys as 
tG make a power of 1 lb. equal to the raising of a weight 




Eg. 34.— Pulley. 

of 100 lb. or 500 lb. It will be observed in the first 
case, in which the pulley is only used to change the 
direction of a force, all parts of the cord are equally 
strained, and the weight or power is equally distributed 
throughout its length. 

In fior. 34 we have two pulleys, one fixed and the 
otner loose, and the weight of 10 lb. hangs from the 



1 20 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

latter. Inspection of the drawing will show that 'as 
the cord is of equal tension throughout each part, A and 
B bear equally the burden that hangs between them, 
consequently each bears 5 lb. ; but the second part of the 
cord goes on over the fixed pulley to the hand, which 
therefore only has to pull with a power of 5 lb. to hold 
up the weight. Thus the arrangement evidently doubles 
the power. Theoretically there is no limit to our multi- 
plication of pulleys, but in practice it is not usual to make 
a combination of more than eight or ten, and even this 
is not of frequent occurrence. 

As we balanced our accounts neatly in treating of the 
other powers, and took from them the honour of creating 
force, which they appear to do and do not — like too many 
human hypocrites — we will see now what is the real full 
and actual value of a set of pulleys in regard to the work 
which they are capable of performing. 

Take first the combination of two, one fast and the 
other loose, as in fig. 34. We wish to raise the 10-lb. 
weight a distance of 6 feet ; we therefore lay hold of the 
cord, and pull. We pull down 2 feet " at a go," as you 
boys would say, and rest a couple of seconds for a fresh 
hold and a fresh pull, and down come 2 feet more of 
cord, and of course the weight has risen 4 feet. Not a 
bit of it ! it has just risen 2 feet, and no more, and we 
have to pull down no less than 12 feet of cord to 



MECHANICAL POWERS. 



121 



raise it the desired height. Let us see why this is so. 
When we pull down 1 foot, we shorten by that much 
the loop in which the loose pulley hangs. Therefore we 
shorten each half of the loop only 6 inches, and the 
weight rises thus far, just half the length of cord drawn 




Fig. 35. 



out. Again, therefore, observe we use a power of 5 lb. to 
raise a weight of 10 lb., but we exercise that power through 
double the distance that the weight is raised. When, 
as in fig. 35, we add to the number of the pulleys, 
and by distributing the weight among a greater number 



1 2 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

of cords, lessen that carried by each, and consequently 
that borne by the hand or power applied, we also increase 
by just so much the length of cord to be pulled down — 
increase the distance through which the power is exercised 
just in the proportion that the power itself is increased. 

As the pulley rises slowly by pulling out a great deal 
of cord, so it will sink slowly as it draws out that cord ; 
and by taking advantage of this, we can use the fall of a 
weight through a short distance to draw out a cord of a 
great length. This, if wound about a cylinder, gives us 
the means of making that cylinder revolve many times 
for each foot that the weight descends, a convenience 
which our ancestors made use of in working the old- 
fashioned kitchen jacks. I daresay hardly a dozen, how- 
ever, now exist in EDgland, but I remember them well. 







Chapter VIII. 

APPLICATION OF MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

AVING now laid a sound foundation by explain- 
ing the laws which govern mechanical action, 
I propose in the present chapter to give some 
details of their practical application in the 
construction of machinery. We have seen that it is 
possible by arrangement of cogwheels to obtain at 
pleasure either quick or slow motion, the former entailing 
loss of power, and the latter providing for its increase. 
Levers and pulleys, as we found, follow a similar law; and 
the first consideration in planning a machine for any 
particular purpose is the nature and rate of the movement 
which is required. To take, first of all, a machine of 
universal application in the construction of mechanism, 
the lathe, we have a motion originating in an up-and- 
down movement of the treadle, converted by the cranked 
axle into a rotary one, and this again communicated with 



124 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



great increase of speed to the material to be operated on. 
Now, in the first place we begin with a loss of power ^ for we 
use a lever of the third order, or of the second order badly 
arranged, though the arrangement is necessary, because 
we require speed. There are two kinds of treadle action, 



therefore, used. 



The first is A (fig. 36), the knifegrinder's, 




Fig. 36. —Treadle Action. 

in which the lever is of the third order. The fulcrum is 
at the extreme end of the footboard, next to the workman, 
the resistance at the other extreme, and the power, or foot 
of the operator, only a short distance from the fulcrum. 

If we suppose the treadle 4 feet long, the equation 
will be as follows, taking the resistance at 40 lb. : 40 x 4 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 125 

(the distance in feet from the fulcrum) = 160. The power, 
supposing the foot placed at a distance of 1 foot from 
the fulcrum, 160 X 1 = 160. It is, in fact, a loss of power 
in the proportion of four to one. The advantage gained is 
this. The foot rising and falling a very short distance, 
moves the other end of the treadle up and down through 
a much greater distance in the same length of time. We 
have therefore gained in speed. The second form of 
treadle is shown at B, and is that of the ordinary lathe. 
The fulcrum is at the furthest point from the foot, the 
back part of the treadle being pivoted at the end S ; the 
resistance (the crank and flywheel), is at about two-thirds 
from the fulcrum, the foot one-third on the side of the 
resistance — i.e., supposing the treadle 3 feet long from the 
footboard to the hinder bar or fulcrum, the balance of 
forces may be thus stated, taking 40 lb. resistance as 
before : R 40x2 (its distance from the fulcrum) = 80 ; 
P 26f x 3 (distance of the power or foot from the fulcrum) 
= 80. 

The resistance, again, is here wholly against the work- 
man; but he gains as before in speed, his foot having only 
to rise and fall through an arc not very much larger than 
that through which the resistance moves. Still the loss 
of power is far less than in the other form of treadle. 
Here we gain our balance with 26| lb., and in the first 
we need 160 lb., the resistance being the same in each case 



126 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



But now we have another element of weakness, con- 
venient as it is in its practical application, viz., the crank. 
This, to begin with, has two dead-points, at which the 
pressure of the treadle only tends to bend the crank-axle, 
but not to cause its rotation. These dead-points are 
obtained by the position e and/ (fig. 36), g being the link 




A B\ F: E 

• 
I I 

v g 
Pig. 37.— Position of Crank. 

which connects it with the treadle. At KL (fig. 37) 
is another view of a crank seen sideways, the flywheel 
being shown by the circle. In its present position, when 
the arm is horizontal, which is half-way between the dead- 
points, it is ready for starting (practically we start it just 
after it has passed the upper dead-point), and is in its most 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 127 

effective position, giving us the whole of its power, such as 
it is. Let us examine it further. The spoke HK and 
the crank together form a lever, of which the crank is the 
shortest end and the spoke the longest. Now the resist- 
ance falls on the rim of the wheel, or extreme end of the 
long arm of the lever, the power on the end of the short 
arm, the fulcrum being the axle. Thus whatever the 
proportion the spoke bears to the crank, such is the resist- 
ance to the power. Let the spoke be 1 foot, the crank 
3 inches — a common proportion — then resistance being 
taken as 40 lb. and expressed by B,, and the power 
expressed by P, we require R 40 x 12 (inches) = 480, 
P 160 X 3 = 480. 

We have four to one against us, even when the crank 
is in its most favourable position, which occurs but once 
during the whole rotation of the axle and wheel. Thus 
we lose power both in respect of the treadle and also in 
respect of the crank. The way to reckon the actual power 
indeed of the latter, at any given point between its 
strongest and weakest, is to consider it as a bent lever, 
of which the opposite spoke is the longest end. 

Now the effective power of a bent lever ABC is the 
same only as ABE, BE being shorter than BO; and as 
BD represents the crank at full power, BE will re- 
present its effective length a certain distance above and 
BF below that point, and it becomes a shorter and 



128 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

shorter lever until its dead-point is reached. As it rises on 
the other side it is of no power at all, and is only carried 
on pa*t its upper dead-point by the momentum of the fly- 
wheel. If its full power is represented by 10 when in a 
horizontal position, it diminishes from 10 to during 
its quarter revolution downwards, and remains at for 
another half revolution and a little over. Its power then 
increases during a quarter revolution, when it is again in 
full power as before. 

Without the heavy flywheel the crank would become 
almost useless, being only an arrangement for altering 
direction of motion. I have spoken of the momentum oi 
the flywheel in this case as a source of power in the 
lathe and similar cases. It does not generate power, 
nevertheless, but acts as a savings bank for the deposit 
of surplus power, which it pretends to give us back 
with interest when needed. The interest is, however, a 
fallacy. 

When we put any inanimate object in motion, its 
tendency is to continue that motion indefinitely in the 
same direction. We call this " vis inertise." At first the 
law seems against experience, because if we set a stone in 
motion it soon ceases to move, and falls to the earth ; and 
if we set a wheel spinning on its axle — our lathe-wheel, 
for instance — it ceases to revolve soon after we dis- 
continue the force which set it in motion. But a 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 129 

moment's consideration shows 11s that inert matter has 
no power or will of its own, it simply yields to that 
which we impose npon it, and therefore has no power 
to cease moving, any more than to commence. The 
reason, therefore, that a body set in motion only con- 
tinues to move for a very short time is that it meets 
with resistance. The stone is opposed by gravity tending 
to draw it to the earth, and by the air or atmosphere 
through which it has to make its way. These very soon 
bring it to a standstill ; the momentum, or tendency to 
move, first imparted to it being insufficient to enable it 
to withstand the contrary forces opposed to it. Now 
when we set in motion a heavy wheel, we give it this 
so-called momentum, and as the motion becomes more 
rapid this momentum increases. It is therefore very soon 
much more than is sufficient to carry the wheel round 
once against the forces which oppose it, and suffices to 
carry it round a great many times, and to overcome- more 
than the obstacles resisting it. Thus, having accumulated 
more power than is needed (but no more than has been 
imparted to it), it is ready to give us back its surplus 
power when needed. Thus it is that it carries the crank 
past its dead-centres, and gives sufficient impetus to the 
wood or metal on the lathe to enable it to revolve 
against the action of the tool. The latter, however, would 
soon bring it to a standstill were it not that after the 



r 30 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

upper dead-point has been passed we again bring 
down the foot upon the treadle, and keep up the motion. 
As the flywheel takes up surplus power if there be any, 
and gives it out again, when otherwise the resistance 
would stop the machinery, it becomes an equaliser of 
motion, keeping power and resistance upon an exact 
balance. This leads me to another beautiful law of 
matter, which at first appears impossible, but is easily 
proved to be true. 

We will state it thus : — An express train is moving at 
a uniform rate of speed — say forty miles an hour. Such 
being the case, power and resistance are exactly equal. 
You will say probably, " How can that be? If Puffing 
Billy were not pulling harder than the resistance, the 
train would not go on, and therefore the power must be 
a little the greatest to keep it moving." Not so, as long- 
as the power is greater than the resistance the rate of 
motion will keep on increasing ; if, on the other hand, it is 
less, the same rate of motion will constantly diminish. 
Consequently, if the motion is uniform, neither increasing 
nor diminishing, the train must of necessity continue to 
move. Now when we hear of a railway accident, you 
often hear of the carriages being piled up one on the 
other, or one is even perhaps thrown over the other. 
Why? Because the whole train (like the flywheel) has 
been in rapid motion, and has accumulated an enormous 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 131 

amount of momentum, tending to keep it in motion. 
Perhaps this would of itself carry the whole train along 
for more than a mile after the steam has been turned off. 
Suddenly it meets with a new resistance — say a balk of 
timber on the line, barring its progress. What is to 
become of all the moving-force or " momentum"? It 
must be expended in some way, consequently the hinder 
carriages, being prohibited from advancing as before, are 
thrown right over those in front, and the whole train 
necessarily becomes, as it were, doubled up. When you 
trip over a stone and fall, the reason is the same, — your 
body has a certain " momentum," or tendency to move 
forward; your foot is suddenly prevented from so doing, 
and down you go, to the detriment of your nose and 
knees. In the same way, if a rabbit or hare is running 
fast, and is suddenly killed by a shot, the momentum 
causes it to make a complete somersault head over heels ; 
or sometimes, if its motion has been very rapid, it will 
tumble over a second time before the momentum is 
wholly expended. All this, you see, results from the fact 
that matter once in motion tends to continue moving, and 
will do so until resistance has become greater than power. 
You cee, therefore, once more we have balanced our 
account, as we did in the matter of levers, inclined 
planes, screws, and pulleys. 

To return, then, to our actual machine — the lathe. We 



1 3 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

find, first, that resistance is dead against us; and secondly, 
that if it were not for the momentum of the flywheel 
we could not even keep up motion, much less turn it to 
account. But what we require for turning wood, especially 
soft wood, is great speed, and to obtain this we can afford 
to sacrifice power, " momentum " being sufficient for our 
purpose. But when we wish to work on metal we cannot 
make a similar sacrifice. The material offers greater 
resistance to the action of the tool, and the latter would 
become heated, and lose its edge, if the metal were to 
revolve against it with rapidity. We shall therefore 
require all the " momentum " which the flywheel can 
give us, and in addition, as much additional power as we 
can arrange to procure. 

We have already seen that to increase power we must 
sacrifice speed, which is exactly what we can in this case 
afford to do, and there are two ways of accomplishing it. 
First, we can increase the leverage of the crank by 
diminishing the length of the other arm, viz., the spoke. 
This is practically carried out by mounting a smaller 
wheel on the axle of the large one, so that while we get 
the full momentum of the latter, we cease to use it at such 
disadvantage. We have the wheel A (fig. 38) as before, and 
B is the small pulley from which the cord passes to that 
above. The radius of this pulley equals here that of the 
crank; not that it generally does so in practice, but we 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



1 33 



may suppose such to be the case. The leverage, therefore, 

here is at once vastly improved, and, for the moment that 

the crank is at full power, the latter is equal to the 

resistance. If the small pulley 

of the lathe is as large as this 

lower one, this amount of power 

will of course be transferred to it 

by the cord; and if the pulley is 

6 inches diameter, and the iron 

to be turned is only 1 inch, we 

attack the latter with a power of 

six to one. By enlarging our upper 

pulley and lessening the lower one, 

we can yet increase this power and 

make the work easier ; but here 

comes the balancing of our account 

again, we keep on diminishing the 

speed exactly in the proportion Kg. 38.— Lathe speed-wheeL 

that we increase the power. This is the first and simplest 

way of attaining our purpose. The second, and practically 

the best, is as follows : — 

Fig. 39 shows the upper pulley of what is called a geared 
or back-geared lathe. It has a small cog-wheel or pinion 
attached, which therefore always moves with it ; but both 
pulley and pinion slip on the mandrel A, and turn freely 
upon it, not being keyed or otherwise fixed to it, as io 




134 



AMONGST MA CHINES. 



simple lathes. The mandrel, however, has a large cog- 
wheel firmly fixed to it, as seen at A, where I have shown 
it separately. First I may premise that it is possible to 

clamp the pulley and this 
large wheel together when 
desired by a small bolt 
and nut, and then, sup- 
posing the other cog-wheels 
which you see behind it 
to be out of the way, the 
pulley and mandrel will 
turn together as in lathes 
fitted only for wood. The 
cogged wheels do not in 
this case come into action 
at all. But if we require 
more power, we unfasten the bolt and nut, and thus leave 
the mandrel and its own large cog-wheel free to revolve 
independently of the pulley and pinion. We now slide 
the back action into gear, which is generally done by 
moving it endwise in its bearing. 

Now observe the action of the whole. The lathe-cord 
from the flywheel rotates the pulley, whose pinion sets 
in motion the large wheel of the back action. The pinion 
of this acts upon the large wheel on the mandrel, and 
puts this in motion, and with it the metal which is to 




Fig. 39.— Geared Lathe. 



MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 135 



be turned. The power gained, supposing both spur-wheels 
alike, and also both the pinions, is equal to twice the 
difference in size or number of cogs between either wheel 
and pinion. Let the spur-wheels have sixty teeth and 
the pinions ten. While the pinion on the pulley moves 
round upon its axis once, D will move but one-sixth of 
its circumference, and its pinion, therefore, also but one- 
sixth, equal to one cog and two-thirds of a cog ; and the 
movement of the large wheel on the mandrel, and there- 
fore of the work, will be but one thirty-sixth of its circum- 
ference — less than two teeth. Or, to make it plainer, six 
turns of G will give one of D, one therefore of its pinion 
E, and only one-sixth (= ten teeth) of H and of the 
mandrel. It will take, consequently, no less than thirty- 
six turns of the first pinion to give one turn to the large 
wheel and mandrel, and the gain, being proportionate, is 
thirty -six to one. Thus, in cases where speed is no object, 
and power only is required, the latter can be, and generally 
is obtained through the medium of geared spur-wheels and 
pinions in this way.* 

All machines, almost without exception, for working 
metal require this slow motion, whether used for turning, 
or planing, or grooving. Drills, indeed, are often driven 

* The above may be stated thus : — 

Number of teeth in pinions ^10x10 = MM = ^ £ loss of speed or 

Number of teeth in spur-wheels 60 x 60 3600 36 ) gain in P ower - 



136 AMONGST MACHINES. 

at a somewhat high speed, but the area of their work is 
very limited, and the resistance consequently small. The} 
are, moreover, kept well lubricated and cool by water or 
oil, to prevent them losing their temper. As a rule, if we 
go to an engine-factory, and notice any machine moving 
at what appears to you a specially slow rate, appearing to 
be doing hardly any work, you may rest assured that is 
some immensely-powerful machine working a great deal 
harder than those which you see spinning so merrily, and 
making so much more noise. In this I think machines 
and boys are much alike — ay, and men too. Some go 
plodding quietly along, doing their work very silently — 
doing a hundred noble things which no one ever sees 
except those benefited — and even these do not always 
recognise the benefactor. The others go along noisily and 
showily, saying to the world, " Only see what a deal of 
work I am doing; what an excellent fellow I am!" — but 
the one eventually becomes recognised as a benefactor of 
his race, and is honoured of all men — the other fades from 
sight like the gaudy butterfly, and none ever miss him, 
because his real work was simply nothing. 



Chapter IX 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 




HEN, as is generally the case, a great number 
of machines are to he set in motion by a single 
steam-engine, a strap from the flywheel of the 
latter passes to a pulley or "rigger" upon a 
long shaft, traversing perhaps the whole length of the 
workshop. Upon the shaft are other riggers, from which 
straps descend to the main axles of the several machines. 
These riggers are in pairs — one fixed to the shaft, the 
other revolving loosely upon it. One is called the fixed 
pulley, the other the loose or " idle " one, and when any 
particular machine is required to be stopped, its strap is 
merely slipped from the fast to the loose pulley. Thus the 
stoppage of any one of a set of machines does not inter- 
fere with the rest, and the main shaft continues to revolve 
as before. The great advantage of strap action is that 
under any sudden and unusual strain the strap will slip 



138 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

and save the machine from injury, and, in addition, by 
this plan of fast and loose pulleys motion can be recom- 
menced without any shock to the apparatus, at whatever rate 
the main shaft may be moving. All sorts of " clutches," 
as they are called, have been invented to enable the action 
of a machine to be suspended and renewed while the main 
shaft which imparts motion continues its rotation, but 
none is so safe as this simple arrangement of fast and 
loose pulleys. The difficulty of suddenly stopping or 
starting a machine arises from "the law of momentum" 
of which I have spoken. Suddenly to throw a machine 
into gear while the prime mover is in rapid motion is like 
running an engine full tilt against a stationary truck, 
in which case you would probably smash it, although it is 
perfectly free to move. You do not give the momentum 
of the engine time to become imparted to the truck, and 
time alone can save the shock in such a case. This is 
indeed an instance of motion in a straight line, but it 
explains equally well circular motion, which likewise can- 
not be suddenly imparted to a stationary object or a still 
wheel, but requires time. A strap exactly answers this 
end, because it is quietly slipped from the loose to the 
fast pulley, and if the resistance is too sudden, it will 
slip a little, or stretch slightly, from its elastic nature. 

I may as well mention here that some manufacturers 
are taking up the practice of using several small engines 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 139 

connected with one boiler, so that perhaps only three or 
four machines are driven together as a group. Then if 
there should be an accident to any one of these engines, 
only a single group of machines are brought to a stand- 
still; whereas, if one large engine drives the whole series, 
a breakdown, or a necessary cleaning of the prime mover, 
necessitates the stoppage of all the machines upon the 
premises. It is evident that as the engine imparts only a 
rotary movement to the main shafting, and thence to the 
various machines, the latter have to be fitted with 
appliances of some sort by which this rotary motion may 
be converted into other movements of various kinds. The 
present chapter will be devoted to a description of the 
methods that have been devised for this purpose, and 
vice versa for the purpose of converting rectilineal motion 
into rotary. Some of these methods are exceedingly 
ingenious, and all, or nearly all, are in daily practical use. 
To make the movements clear, I propose to group them, 
and shall explain each group individually. 

Let us first see how we can convert circular or rotary 
motion into rectilinear. The planing-machine will illus- 
trate one usual method, or the shaping-machine, which is 
a smaller one of the same class. In these either the bed is 
moved to and fro while the tool remains stationary, or the 
tool itself traverses and the material to be planed is clamped 
upon a level platform or bed underneath it. Let L (fig. 40) 



140 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



represent the pulley or rigger by which motion is imparted 
to the machine from the main shafting. On the opposite 
end of the same axle is a crank-plate or solid circulai 
wheel, with a deep slot or groove cut across its face. In 
this is a slide, with a strong pin rising from its centre, 
and the slide can be clamped in any desired part of the 
main plate. The arm A has an eye which fits over the 




Fig. 40. — Shaping-Machine. 

pin, and at the other end is attached in a similar manner 
to the main slide of the engine, which carries the tool- 
holder. This slide has only a to-and-fro motion between 
guides, and therefore, as the rotation of the crank-plate 
acts on one end of the bar or connecting-rod A, the other 
end draws the tool-slide backwards and forwards. The 
length of stroke varies according as the driving-pin is 
nearer to or further from the centre of the crank-plate, 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 141 

its longest stroke being of course when the pin is at the 
extreme edge of the disc, and its shortest when almost at 
the centre or axis of rotation. The handle K is for the 
purpose of raising and lowering the tool in the slide-rest, 
to which it is attached, and there is a movement also of 
tool or work sideways between every stroke, so that 
eventually the whole of the latter becomes levelled by the 
action of the tool. Details of these motions are omitted 
here. These crank-plates, being simple and convenient 
arrangements for converting circular into reciprocating 
movement, are very frequently used for that purpose, but 
there are several other modes of obtaining a similar result. 
It will be seen that an ordinary crank, as, for instance, 
that of a lathe, which, when the flywheel is moved, lifts 
and lowers the treadle alternately, is exactly the same 
thing in principle as the one here alluded to, but not 
being adjustable in length, is not so convenient for shap- 
ing-machines, in which it is often necessary to alter the 
distance of traverse of the tool. 

Closely allied to the crank is the eccentric (fig. 41), which 
gives a very beautiful to-and-fro motion, and is generally 
used to move the slide-valves of engines, and for many other 
purposes. On the main or other revolving axle of the 
machine is a thick metal disc or solid wheel ; but this 
is not concentric with the axle, which passes through it 
at any given distance from its real centre. When, there- 



1 42 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

fore, the axle revolves, this disc revolves with it ; but while 
one point in its circumference describes a large circle, 
another will describe a smaller round its axis of rotation, 
so that, to use a common expression, it appears to wobble. 
A ring of metal embraces the edge of this disc, fitting 
it nicely, but so that the disc can move easily inside it, 
and to this ring a long rod or light framework (which 
acts as a simple rod) is attached, and its end is connected 
to that part of the engine or machine in which a recipro- 




Pig. 41.— Eccentric. 

eating motion is required, being pinned or johited to it 
in such a way that the connection forms a hinge. Very 
frequently the end is formed into a hook, which drops 
over a pin in the plate to which sliding motion is to be 
imparted. An eccentric is nothing more than a solid 
crank, its " throw " being twice the distance between the 
real centre and that on which it revolves. It is generally 
used where only a short stroke is required, and gentle, 
easy motion, and where an exceedingly short-armed crank 
could not so readily be applied. The motion of a crank 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 



143 



or eccentric is not uniform, being quick at two opposite 
points and slow at two other points halfway between 
them. The rate of motion is consequently always be- 
coming accelerated or retarded between these points. An 
eccentric is sometimes used as a " cam," without its 
encircling ring, as in fig. 42. Here it gradually raises 
and lowers the arm of the lever connected with it, which 
may represent one handle of a pair of fixed shears. 
" Cams " are of all possible shapes, and are used in 




Pig. 42.— Eccentric Cam and Shears. 

machines of various kinds, as they can be arranged to 
produce uniform or varied motion, and provide means 
for the application of enormous power. In the construc- 
tion, for instance, of the massive punching and shearing 
machines used for cutting boiler-plate and preparing it 
for the rivets, cams are used, in connection with a train 
of wheels, to produce very slow and powerful motion. 
The working part of this machine is shown in fig. 43. The 
flywheel K, of which there are often two with very heavy 
rims, is put in motion by means of a strap from the engine 



144 



AMONGST MA CHINES. 



attached to its rigger F ; or frequently a separate engine 
belongs to the machine, and cog-wheels only are used to 
work it. On the main shaft is a very strong pinion 
gearing into a spur-wheel, which again carries a second 







Pig. 43.— Punching-Machine. 

pinion, and gears into a spur-wheel with a massive axle 
on which is the cam C — an eccentric boss, in one piece 
with the axle. Here I have, for the sake of clearness, 
shown but one pinion and spur-wheel, which will answer 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 145 



if a vast amount of powei is not required. As the main 
shaft with the flywheels revolves with a fair amount of 
speed, giving the necessary "momentum," the lower 
shaft and cam revolve very slowly, owing to the great 
difference in size between the pinion and spur-wheel, as 
in the geared lathe already described. Slowly, therefore, 
and in large machines with irresistible force, the head 
of the sliding part Gr, which carries the punch or cutting 
edge, is depressed by the eccentric cam, and the metal is 
sheared or punched as if it were cheese rind. The shape 
of the cam is such that it commences to give a quick 
descent to the slide, but gradually diminishes its speed 
while increasing its power. 

I know of no machine which strikes the looker-on with 
a greater sense of the power produced by machinery than 
these massive machines, which are now so generally used. 
Sheets and bars of iron, nearly or quite an inch thick, are 
bitten tn two by these huge jaws as (apparently) easily as 
you could cut a piece of card with a pair of scissors. If, 
however, you pick up a piece punched out, you will see by 
the depression on one end, and also find by the heat of it, 
what vast force has really been exercised upon it. Of 
course the frames of these machines are very massive, and 
all parts as strongly made as possible. 

Another common application of eccentric- cam action is 
to cause the necessary pressure for printing and for the 



146 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



stamping paper or envelopes with crests or addresses (fig. 
44), and indeed for supplying pressure in various cases, 
where a quick, powerful action is needed, and it would 
take too long to obtain it by the rotation of a screw. 

Our subject, however, is not cam action or eccentric 
action generally, but only the method of producing 




Fig. 44.— Section of Die-Press. 



rectilineal motion by means of rotary, of which these 
powerful actions are common examples. Sometimes the 
up-and-down or horizontal movement of a slide is not 
required to be continuous but intermittent — to begin, 
cease, and recommence either in the same or contrary 
direction ; and this, at first sight, complicated movement 
is to be derived from a primary rotary motion of the 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 



U7 



main shaft of the machine. There are many different 
ways of accomplishing this. First of all, a wheel with 
only a few cogs may be made to act alternately on an 
upper and lower rack, attached to the end or other part of the 
bar to which it is necessary to impart the intermittent mo- 
tion alluded to, as shown at A, iig. 45. The wheel con- 
tinues to revolve in one direction, but necessarily moves 
the rack to and fro. B is another method of producing 




Fig. 45— A, B, and C. 

similar motion, in which, instead of cogs and racks, a set 
of tappets or wipers are made to act against a single pin 
or tooth in the two bars. In the case of the slit or 
slotted lever b, moved by a pin in the face of the 
revolving wheel A (the lever vibrating on a centre pin), 
a varying intermittent motion is produced. 

We will now reverse the case and see how rectilinear 
motion can be converted into circular. First, we have 
our friend the crank and treadle, which has been 



148 



AMONG SI" MACHINES. 



described, and is, moreover, generally known and used. 
But when Watt in his steam-engine desired to use it, in 
order to convert the up-and-down motion of the end of 
the beam into a revolving motion of the crank axle, he 




Kg. 46.— Sun and Planet Wheels. 



was prevented by some one else claiming the discovery. 
He therefore arranged two cog-wheels, which, owing to 
their movement round one another, went by the name of 
"sun and planet wheels" (fig. 46). One of the cog- 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 149 

wheels is fixed to the axis of the flywheel, the other 
to the rod AB, which oscillates on the point C as the 
beam end goes up and down. The wheel, be it observed, 
does not turn on a centre of its own, being immovably 
fixed to AB. A link keeps the two wheels in contact, 
and this link is free to move on its centres. As there- 
fore AB oscillates to and fro at each movement of the 
engine beam, the wheel attached to it revolves round 




Pig. 47.— Ratchet and Pawl. 

that one on the axis, and puts the flywheel in motion ; 
and if the two wheels are of one size, the flywheel will 
revolve twice, while a common crank would have given it 
but one rotation on its axis. This method, not being so 
simple as the crank, has fallen into disuse, and was never 
very generally adopted. The ratchet and pawl (&g. 47) 
have been used in various machines — notably in the 



1 50 AMONG S T MA CHINES. 

planing - machines for metal, and in sawing - machines. 
They were used also by Bain and others in his electric 
clock, and form a very simple but ingenious mode of 
converting rectilineal into circular motion. 

The lever AB is pivoted at C, and can be moved 
up and down like a pump-handle. As the end A rises, 
the pawl, which is loosely hinged, slips over the sloping 
side of the wheel-tooth ; but as the lever descends, it falls 
on the other side of the tooth, which it is compelled 
to push onwards, giving the required motion. Some- 
times there are two pawls, as in fig. 47, so that one 
tooth is moved both at the upward and at the downward 
motion of the lever, and the wheel revolves continuously 
instead of intermittently. 

The Archimedean drill - stock, and the pump - drill, 
used generally by menders of china and glass, and the 
drill-bow of the watchmaker (fig. 48, A, B, C) are all 
examples of a to-and-fro or rectilineal movement being 
used to obtain a circular one. The pump - drill con- 
sists of a flywheel with a heavy rim, round the 
axle of which two cords are twisted, being also fast- 
ened to the top of the axle. The latter is vertical or 
upright, and is bored out at the lower end to receive the 
drills. A cross handle, through the middle of which 
the axle passes, has one of the cords fastened to each 
of its ends, and it is the sudden pressure on this handle, 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 



151 



after the cords have been coiled once or twice about the 
axle, that causes the drill to spin round with rapidity. 
In so doing the momentum of the flywheel keeps up the 
action, and twists the cords in the opposite direction, 
thereby shortening them and raising the cross handle— 




fig. 48.— Drills. 

the pressure of the hands being withdrawn to allow it to 
rise. The handle is then pushed down again, the cords 
unwind, and fresh impetus is given to the drill, the motion 
of which is continuous in one direction. The other two 



152 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



drills owe their action to a different cause. The stock or 
Bhaft has a quick screw cut upon it, and on this is fitted 
a nut. By pulling the latter up and down upon the 
screw, this is caused to make a few quick turns, first in 
one direction and then in the other. These twisted drills 
are beautifully adapted for small work, and are ex- 
tensively used, but the bow-drill is by no means gone 
out of use in the watch trade. This same bow is used 
also by the watchmaker to give motion to small wheels 
and pinions which are to be turned in his miniature 
lathe. This is done by taking one turn of the bow- 
string (gut or norsehair) round a small brass pulley fixed 
upon the drill-shaft, or upon the work to be turned, and 
pulling the bow to and fro by the left hand, while the 
tool is held in the right (see fig. 49). Of course the 

cut can only be taken while 
T^- " the work revolves against 

the tool, and therefore time 
is wholly lost while it re- 
volves in the contrary di- 
rection. It may seem 
wonderful that good accu- 
rate work should be done 
by such means, but even now, not only is the bow- 
lathe used generally for watch-work, but the spring pole 
of the large lathe, fixed up above the head of the turner 




Fig. 49.— Bow-Lathe. 



OTHER MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. 153 

from which a cord descends to the treadle, may still be seen 
in the shops of some soft-wood turners and chairmakers. 
The action is just the same as that of the bow. The cord 
of raw hide descends from the pole, takes a turn or two 
round the piece of wood to be turned, which rotates be- 
tween two fixed points, and passes to the treadle, where it 
is fastened. When the foot presses downward, the wood 
revolves against the tool; and when the foot is raised, the 
spring pole or bow draws up the treadle, and rotates the 
work in the opposite direction. 




Chapter X. 



VARIOUS MANUFACTURES — STEEL PENS, 




HAYE already explained the form of stamping- 
press used for embossing notepaper, and for 
similar light purposes. When, however, great 
and sudden power is needed, the screw made 
with a quick thread — i.e., with one complete thread in 2 

inches or so of its length — is 
used instead. One turn of a 
screw of this pitch will cause 
Plllllll a die to descend 2 inches with 

great rapidity. Such a stamp- 
ing-press is shown in fig. 50, and 
the heavy balls on the lever 
supply the place of a flywheel 
Kg. 50. -stamping-Press with heavy rim, and give the 
necessary impetus or momentum. As already explained, 
this arrangement of " fly-press/' as it is called, is used 
in the Royal Mint for punching the coins from flat strips 




STEEL PENS. 155 



of gold and silver, for hand - presses for printing and 
copying letters, and for many processes in our manu- 
factures — one of the most notable being the punching 
from flat ribbons of steel the pens of which so many 
thousands are now used, and also for bending them into 
the various forms which are usually given to them. The 
present chapter will be devoted to an account of steel- 
pen making, as witnessed by the writer on a recent visit 
to the manufactory. We will sketch the trip as we 
scribbled it down at the time, and it is just such a one 
as we should wish our boys to take. 

A VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM IN 1872. 

In the early spring of the above year, we found our- 
selves beneath the magnificent glass roof of the Birming- 
ham New Street Station, into which we had emerged, with 
a shriek of recognition, from the bowels of the earth — 
our somewhat tedious and monotonous journey having 
ended with a rush through a tunnel. Almost before the 
pantings and snortings of our iron horse had died away, 
we had seized our limited assortment of traps, and were 
on our way; for be it noted, for the edification of 
travelling readers, that our traps, or duds, or baggage, or 
lumber, are always on an exceedingly limited scale when 
we migrate apart from the wife of our bosom and certain 
innumerable pledges of her affection, which always 



1 56 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



suggest to us " unlimited liability." Our boys will of 
course understand that we refer to the girls and the 
babies. The bassinette and perambulator, and trunks 
aud baskets for dresses, they will appreciate as literally 
u impedimenta " on such journeys as the present. A 
drive to the quarters assigned to us in the hospitable 
mansion of an old friend suggested very decidedly smoke. 
Smoke above, denying a glimpse of the outer walls' of 
heaven — smoke below, in sooty griminess trodden into 
black mud — smoke on all sides, giving effects of cloud- 
land and distance, in which Turner would have rejoiced — 
but smoke that was ever repeating the dictum of the 
alchemist, that baser metals could be turned into gold. 
Under that dark canopy, day by day and hour by hour, 
patient workers were toiling with that unremitting labour 
of head, of hand, which helps forward not only the wealth 
of nations, but their civilisation. 

" Labour for the chapman at his trade, a dull unvaried round. 
Year after year unto death ; yea ! what a weariness is it ! 
Labour for the pale-faced scribe drudging at his hated desk, 
Who bartereth for needful pittance the untold gold of health. 
Labour with fear, for the merchant, whose hopes are ventured on the 

sea; 
Labour with care, for the man of law, responsible in his gains ; 
Labour with envy and annoyance, where strangers will thee wealth ; 
Labour with indolence and gloom, where wealth falleth from a 

father; 
Labour unto all — whether aching thews, or aching head, or spirit." 

M. Tupper. 



STEEL PENS. 157 



Soon, however, we found that we had left the smoke, 
emblem of darkness, behind, and that either the cloud had 
cleared away, or we had reached the silver lining; and a 
suddeD turn in the road introduced us to a clear atmosphere, 
goodly houses, pleasant fields, and fair churches ; another 
turn, and we were safely housed, and, what is even far 
more to be prized, warmly welcomed. Thus auspiciously 
began our introduction to the sights of Birmingham, and 
what we saw, and what we did, and what we thought will 
occupy the following pages. 

As the pen is our weapon of offence and defence, our 
cherished friend and our general messenger, we thought 
it best to commence our tour of investigation by visit- 
ing its birthplace, and an introduction to Gillot & Co. 
quickly procured us the desired permission. This manu- 
factory is always open to inquiring visitors, and this is not 
one of the sealed manufactories which are daily becoming 
more numerous. There is a visitors' book on which auto- 
graphs of all nations may be studied, and in which hence- 
forth our own caligraphy may be inspected and admired. 

The steel used for pens is rolled into thin plates before 
it reaches the Birmingham factory. It is, however, rolled 
again at the latter place to the exact gauge required, and 
is given into the hands of the blank-cutters as narrow 
slips wide enough to allow of two pens being cut therefrom 
end to end, as shown by D in fig. 51. The flat blank of 



158 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



an ordinary pen appears as A, that of a small barrel pen 
as B, and the larger or magnum bonum as C. There are 

D 




Fig. 51. 



other forms used by different makers, and also by the 
Messrs. Gillot, but the above, which are the most common, 



STEEL PENS. 159 



will suffice to give a clear notion of the various processes 
required. All these are cut at fly-presses by women, who 
are very largely employed in this work. The machines 
required are made and repaired upon the premises, which 
appears to be a very general rule with the Birmingham 
manufacturers. The waste pieces like D, especially those 
from which the long barrel pens have been cut, would, if 
polished, have a highly ornamental appearance, and might, 
one would have supposed, be used for various purposes 
of decoration. Such, however, is not the case, and they 
return eventually to the melting - pot, or are otherwise 
worked up anew. It must be understood that in this, and 
indeed in all similar manufactories, division of labour is 
carried out to the utmost. Each workman is tied to a 
single operation, which he (or she, as the case may be) 
constantly practises from day to day, and in which there- 
fore rapidity and neatness of execution are quickly attained, 
and, in many instances, the special work originally learned 
is the only one that is understood. After the flat blanks 
have been punched out as above, they pass to another set 
of presses, in which the hole E, for the retention of the 
ink, and the two small slits are made, for the purpose of 
giving greater elasticity to the pen. The size, shape, and 
position of these are varied according to the pattern of 
pen required, but in all cases the punching operation is 
the same. 



1 60 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

» 

The next operation is stamping upon the blank the 
maker's name, with the number or letter by which the 
particular kind of pen is to be recognised. As rolling and 
stamping deprive the steel to some extent of its flexibil- 
ity, the blanks are now sent to the annealer, who softens 
them by the application of heat, rendering them fit to 
undergo the process of bending to the required form. 
This is done as before by a set of punches, the common 
pen being placed on a simple hollow die, and' struck by 
a convex one. The barrel pens are similarly begun, and 
finished between a pair of concave dies. It will be readily 
perceived that these dies regulate both the curve and 
figure of the pens, the variety of forms issued by pen- 
makers with different high-sounding names being each 
supposed to impart some special quality to the instrument. 
For our own part we believe in two qualities only, 
elasticity and breadth of point, and as to the latter we 
commonly grind it down to suit ourselves; but when we 
have done, and made our pen somewhat like an elastic 
stick, we are still fain to confess there is nothing equal 
to a good quill, albeit it is difficult to procure. 

The present volume certainly would never see the light 
of day, if the writer were compelled to resort to steel pens 
for the necessary preparation of MS. At the same time, 
it must have been a grand day of rejoicing among the 
Lincolnshire geese when the first steel pen was an accom- 



STEEL PENS. 161 



plished fact ; for it is also a fact, and to the geese a 
painful one, that the quills were ordinarily plucked from 
the living bird, who was then turned loose to grow a fresh 
crop the following year. This, I suppose, was a necessary 
barbarity, as it would hardly have paid to kill a goose for 
the dozen pens that the wings afforded, any more than it 
paid to kill another fabled goose which laid golden eggs. 

After the various fly-presses have done their work, the 
pens are finished upon a grinding-wheel dressed with 
emery, upon which also the points are carefully finished. 
The blanks may now be considered to have assumed the 
features of steel pens, but are not slit. This, again, is a 
stamping operation, and is effected by two sharp punches, 
which meet like the edges of a pair of scissors — one being 
fixed in the bed, and the other in the facing part of the 
press. The metal now needs to be tempered, which is 
effected by heating a number together in a muffle, or close 
iron vessel, in a furnace, and throwing them, when of a dull 
red, into oil. The sudden cooling renders the pens so hard 
that they would break to pieces instantly under a blow, 
and they have in this state no elasticity whatever. They 
are raised on a kind of colander from this oil-bath, and 
placed in a revolving cage over a number of gas-jets, where, 
as the heat gradually increases, they assume various colours, 
beginning with the palest straw, and passing through 
deeper yellow, orange, purple, and blue. The latter is 

L 



1 62 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

spring temper, which must not be exceeded. The pens are 
now practically finished, but are often coated with varnish, 
which, when dry, gives them a smarter appearance. 

Such is briefly the process of steel-pen making ; but 
there are one or two additional softenings or annealings 
of the steel as an intermediate operation, and certain 
scourings in revolving vessels, in which they are shaken 
about with pounded gritty material until they are rendered 
bright, and their rough edges, caused by grinding and 
stamping, rounded off. Now that steel pens are every- 
day affairs, we think little of the process of manufacture ; 
but the amount of thought and capital expended on the 
necessary machinery, simple as it may now appear, was 
very great, and does great credit to the enterprising firm 
of Gillott & Sons of Birmingham, who originated and per 
sonally made the greater part of it. 

Having the pen at hand, we require a suitable holder, 
and (except for barrel pens) this article consists of a well- 
formed, and frequently ornamented, stick of cedar or other 
wood, with a metal addition for the actual reception of the 
pen. The latter part is made, like the pen itself, by means 
of stamping-presses, which first cut out and then roll up 
the metal into a tubular form. For this work sheet brass 
and other metals are used as well as steel. The wooden 
sticks are made wholly by machinery, and a large quantity 
of timber is cut up yearly for their production. First of 



STEEL PENS. 



163 



all the wood is cut into boards of a suitable thickness, and 
these boards are passed into a machine which is practically 
a plane with semicircular notches cut in the iron. The 
board, being placed first on one side, appears thus (fig-. 52). 
It is then reversed, and similarly worked on the opposite 
side, when the long rounded strips are sepa- 
rated. These are long enough for several' 
penholders, and are cut rapidly into lengths 
by a circular saw, there being a gauge to 
regulate the sizes required. These are now 
placed in a machine in which each stick is 
made to pass between figured dies, which 
not only impress upon them the desired 
pattern, but also by simple compression di- 
minish slightly that part upon which the tube 
of metal is to be placed. So perfect is the 
operation of this machine, that it rejects auto- 
matically any damaged sticks, throwing them 
out of one part, while the finished holders fall from another 
into a box placed for their reception. If the handles are 
to be tapered, the dies which form them are made gradually 
to close as the stick passes through them. All that is re- 
quired is to feed the machine with its allotted number of 
sticks, and these are digested and finished in form and 
figure with a rapidity and certainty astonishing to the 
looker-on. Yet to those practically acquainted with the 




1 64 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

powers of machinery, and the possibility of so adapting the 
different parts of machines as to render them capable of the 
most complicated and varying motions, no work of the 
kind seems impossible. The precision with which these 
pen-making machines, however, work, is, to say the least, 
equal to clockwork, and the wear and tear they have to 
undergo necessitates excellence in material and fitting of 
the very highest degree. 

Before the public receive the steel pens they require to be 
packed in boxes, which are nevertheless charged at so low 
a price that no practical difference is made on the cost for 
100 pens loose or 100 thus securely packed. The box-mak- 
ing is both simple and ingenious in its details, and the 
modus operandi is as follows : The fly-press at a single 
blow cuts out the thin cardboard into pieces of the shape 
shown at A, fig. 53. Where the folds are to take place 
the card is also partially cut, that it may bend easily and 
form sharper edges. 

Women, who are very generally employed in pen-making, 
sit at a long bench, on which lie paste and scissors, paper 
of various colours, and little wooden blocks, of certain 
sizes, which are the moulds on which the pen-boxes are 
made. One of these is shown at B, and it will be seen 
that it has a horizontal groove cut round it about the 
middle, but a little higher than the exact central line. The 
blank of card is laid on the table, and one of the blocks 



STEEL PENS. 



16S 



which fits it laid inside. A similar blank is laid upon the 
top, and the edges of the two exactly meet, as here shown, 
the junction being just over the groove cut in the block. 
A slip of coloured paper is rapidly folded round, and 
another piece laid upon the top with a speed and dexterity 
only to be attained by constant practice. The box and 
cover are thus made as one (C), and when dry a sharp knife 
is passed round on the line of the groove. The top and 




Pig. 53.— Pen-Boxes. 

bottom are thus separated, and the block falls out. It is, 
however, necessary that the cover should slide over what a 
carpenter would call a rabbet (rebate), D, as it could not be 
made to keep its place. A strip of cardboard already cut, 
and folded over a similar block to ensure an exact fit, is 
therefore pasted inside the box so as to stand up a quarter 
of an inch above its edge, thus forming a guide and 



1 66 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

resting-place for the cover. The whole operation is carried 
on a great deal more quickly than it could be described even 
by the most rapid pen ; but it must not be supposed that 
one person could complete the whole with the necessary 
speed to make the work pay. The blanks are stamped by 
one, passed on in piles to the next, who has these on one 
side of her and the wooden blocks on the other. Having 
enclosed the latter as already described, and pasted a slip 
of paper on, to hold them together (this paper being cut and 
pasted ready for use by another), the box is passed on to 
the next, who covers it. Another carries the piles to a warm 
place to dry, and then another cuts the top and bottom 
asunder, and places the thin slip inside for the cover. Thus, 
like the pens, each box goes through a number of hands 
trained to do their own special part in the manufacture. 
When the boxes are all complete, the pens are counted and 
placed in them, secured by a single strip of paper, on which 
the number and quality are marked. A gross, or twelve 
dozen, are very commonly in one box ; but of the magnum 
bonum and other large pens a dozen only are usually packed. 

In the showroom may be seen pens a great deal larger 
than any commonly used, and also others so small that it is 
almost impossible to believe they can be pens. Under the 
microscope, however, they are seen to be perfect and 
beautifully finished. Of course these are but curiosities. 

One thing that especially strikes the visitor to Messrs. 



STEEL PENS. 167 



Gillott's factory is the happy and contented appearance of 
the numerous workers. For all the lighter work women 
appear to be employed, hut for the heavier machinery for 
rolling the steel and planing the boards which are to be 
made into penholders men are necessary. The whole range 
of buildings is well adapted for the work to be carried on. 
The rooms are large and lofty, well lighted and ventilated, 
and are kept scrupulously clean, and everything that can 
promote the physical and moral welfare of the workpeople 
is adopted. I have spoken of rolling the steel, but the 
latter is manufactured elsewhere, and the rolling done at 
the pen manufactory is merely necessary as a finishing 
process to reduce the ribbon-like strips to the exact gauge 
required, and put a better finish upon the surface. 

I have now done with steel pens, but I strongly advise 
my young readers to take any chance that may present 
itself of visiting the manufactory and personally witness- 
ing the various processes. After reading the present brief 
account, they will be far better prepared for a visit than 
if they had previously been entirely ignorant of the work. 
They now know what to expect and what to look for, and 
minor details, merely hinted at in this brief paper, but 
which are nevertheless of importance, will be noted ; and 
the whole process from beginning to end will not only be 
seen as a matter of interest, but will be fully understood, 
and appreciated as it deserves. 



^>v 




\^&r 



Chapter XI. 



PINS, 




E shall again come across our coil of iron wire, 
of which we have described the manufacture in 
a previous chapter, and we shall find that One 
purpose for which it is used is the manufac- 
ture of screws for the carpenter and joiner, for which 
purpose it has superseded the forged blanks used in 
ancestral days. Brass wire, made in a similar manner, 
is also used for screws, such as we see in the handsomer 
articles of house furniture — pianos, and so forth. Drawn 
still smaller, we meet with it in the form of pins, the 
sizes ranging from 3 inches down to that of minikins 
half an inch in length, or even less. When we think 
of the tens of thousands of pins used in the present 
day, we wonder what people used to do before they were 
invented. Well, they are, after all, of no very ancient 
date. Until the middle of the sixteenth century they 



PINS. 169 

were wholly unknown ; and bone, wooden, and ivory 
skewers, or (with rich people) gold and silver ones, with 
brooches and clasps of divers kinds, were used by ladies 
for the purposes for which pins have since been substituted. 
The first pins were introduced, like most novelties, from 
abroad; but in Henry YIII.'s time a manufacture of 
pins seems to have had sufficient footing in England to 
call for an Act of Parliament. This Act required that no 
person shall put to sale " any pins but such as be double- 
headed, and have the heads soldered fast to the shank, 
well smoothed, the shank well shaven, the point well 
and roundly filed, canted, and sharpened." What these 
double-headed pins were the writer does not know. 

A pin now consists of only one piece of wire pointed 
and headed. In old days it consisted of two, the head 
being itself a little coil of wire slipped on the pin, and 
secured by a blow from a punch. To make these heads 
a thin wire was coiled round another of the same size as 
the pin, the coils being quite close together, and after- 
wards, by means of a pair of shears or hinged knife, the 
coil was cut up into short lengths, each of the requisite 
size for one head. I fancy you would not have liked the 
job of slipping each wire into its little bead-like head, yet 
this was done with considerable rapidity by those well prac- 
tised in the art. They were not threaded, indeed, one by 
one, but the workman used to put a number of heads 



1 7 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

into his apron, take a bundle of pins in his hand, and by 
a little shaking and manoeuvring pick up as many heads 
as he could. The pins thus loosely headed were in 
succession placed under a punch worked by the foot, and 
one blow completed the process. Whether the head thus 
arranged was firmly fixed, some of us who are no longer 
boys know pretty well. In point of fact, they continually 
slipped either wholly off, or too far on, leaving the naked 
wire to hurt the fingers. I have often wondered, when 
pins were made, why soldering was not tried, the shank 
being dipped into melted tin before the head was put on, 
and both heated for a second afterwards. Luckily, how- 
ever, I did not patent this brilliant idea, nor another of 
equal value, viz., to form the head of a drop of solder, 
and finish it under a punch ; for all at once it occurred to 
one Wright (I believe) of Derby to form the head as a 
blacksmith forms that of a nail — hammering it up from 
the solid metal of the shank. I can remember the first 
appearance of these solid-headed pins, which, like red- 
legged partridges, soon drove their weaker brethren 
from the field. Several machines for the above purpose 
have since been protected by patent, for it is, of course, 
possible to vary the details considerably ; but the main 
working parts, and the principle of action, are the same 
in all. A few months since, we visited a pin manufac- 
tory in Birmingham, in which they manufacture all sizes, 



PINS. 171 



from 3 inches down to about J or f , baby pins or mini- 
kins, yet as beautifully finished as the larger ones. As 
you stand in front of a long row of these machines, yon 
see pins falling rapidly into boxes from a long spout or 
shoot, pointed, headed, and complete, except in polish and 
colour. There were, perhaps, ten machines in the row, 
each disgorging about 300 pins every minute, and 
requiring hardly any attention. Rather noisy they are, 
these pinmakers ; but so are boys, and if both do their work 
satisfactorily, I suppose we must not expect them to be 
over-silent. It was a perpetual click and hammer — fairy 
blacksmiths forging nails with the utmost regularity and 
precision. Having taken a general view, and picked up 
a handful of pins, to see if they were all alike well made, 
we proceeded to search for details. First there is the feed, 
on which the machines are to exercise their digestive 
powers. This is represented by a bright coil of brass 
wire coiled on a conical wheel or drum, which revolves 
freely on its upright axis at the back of the machine, at 
its upper part. The wire, as it leaves this drum or swift, 
passes through a double row of pins fixed in a zigzag 
fashion, so that it is bent in its passage first to the right 
and then to the left ; and having had enough of bending, 
it issues from the pins quite straight, and begins its 
eventful journey. 

What that journey is we will endeavour to describe 



1 7 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

with the aid of a drawing or two ; but the details of pin- 
making machines vary according to the many patents by 
which, from time to time, the different contrivances for 
pointing, heading, cutting off, &c, have been protected 
since Wright's first invention was established in 1820. 
The simplest way will therefore be to give a plan of the 
different parts, omitting the framing, and not confining 
ourselves precisely to any single patented machine. The 
several processes will be — (1) Straightening the wire ; 
(2) drawing forward enough for one pin ; (3) holding it 
fast that (4) it may be headed ; and it has then (5) to be 
cut off, (6) pointed, and then lastly delivered into boxes 
or baskets as a complete pin, requiring only to be whit- 
ened, finished, and packed for sale. A single machine 
now accomplishes the whole of these operations except the 
two last, viz., the whitening and finishing. The insertion 
into papers in rows is now done by machinery also. The 
brass wire is wound upon a slightly conical reel (A, fig. 
54), which revolves upon an upright axis or pin fixed at 
the back of the machine. This may be called the " feed," 
which is rapidly drawn into the insatiate maw of the 
machine, to be metamorphosed into the article in question, 
which article we take as the representative of inappreci- 
able value, simply because the supply is so prodigious. To 
obtain such valueless article has, nevertheless, cost a mint 
of money, and much wear and tear of mind and braia 



PINS. 



I 73 



The wire is drawn from the reel, or "swift" as it 
is technically called, by a pair of rollers or cams BB, 
revolving on an axis in the direction of the arrows. 
These rollers have each a flat 
face in one part of their cir- 
cumference, so that as they 
revolve they clip the wire and 
draw it forwards until these 
flattened parts face each other 
and let go their hold, begin- 
ning again to grip the wire 
when the flats have passed. 
Thus their united action is to 
draw forward a certain length 
— release it — and then repeat 
the process until all the wire 
has been unwound. The wire 
thus sent forward is now gripped 
between two dies or jaws EE, 
which separate from each other 
by a spring, until a cam F 
in its revolution brings them 

together, and Causes them tO ^ ^-MaeMne for making Pin* 

hold the wire firmly. The time of action of the cams is so 
arranged tha/. these dies grip the wire just as a very little 
of it projects beyond them at K, at which moment the 




1 74 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

pair BB cease to draw it forward, and the catting dies 
DD advance and sever this length from that on the reel. 
At the same moment the punch G is made to strike the 
projecting end by the action of cams, or tappets on the 
disc, completing the head at three blows. The dies 
EE instantly fall back, and release the pin, which only 
requires to be pointed. When it is considered that 300 
pins are thus completed in one minute, the speed and 
exactness with which these various operations have to 
be carried on only serve to show the perfection of the 
mechanism employed. 

But the pointing has still to be done, and is effected by 
the same machine. As soon as the grip opens, the pin 
falls into a kind of trough below, which inclines just 
sufficiently downward at one end to carry the pins for- 
ward by their own weight, aided by the continual shaking 
of the machine itself. This trough inclines to the 
left, turns at an obtuse angle, and comes back along 
the front of the machine. It has a slit extending its 
whole length along the bottom, which slit is just 
sufficiently wide to allow a pin to drop through as far as 
the head, so that it will travel along its course point 
downwards. In this position, therefore, the pins gradually 
pass onward to the front ; and as they pursue their 
appointed course they come in contact with a long grind- 
stone of a cylindrical form, or slightly conical, which 



■FINS. 175 



revolves in bearings in the forepart of the frame. As 
they hang in contact with this, they are made to rotate 
on their own axis by a bar, against which they lean as 
they hang, and which traverses to and fro, lengthwise. 
They are thus pointed very evenly, and pass on till they 
fall from the end of the trough into a box or other recep- 
tacle placed to receive them. Little people often make a 
great noise in the world, and not seldom do but little real 
work, and that of an inferior kind; but these little machines, 
of which a number are placed side by side, are of the very 
noisiest, rapping with tenfold the vigour of the spirits 
who are wont to amuse themselves thus, but doing their 
work so well that you may search among a bushel of 
pins and hardly find one that is incomplete. 

The pins, thus completed as regards head and point, 
are of course still of the yellow colour of the brass wire 
from which they were made, and if left in this state 
would very quickly become tarnished. They are there- 
fore first of all scoured in sand, and then tinned by being 
boiled in a solution of tin and bitartrate of potash, after 
which they are dried in bran with friction, which leaves 
them as white and bright as silver. Nothing now 
remains but to pack them in boxes made in a similar 
way to those described in the chapter on steel pens, or 
to stick them into folded papers. The latter work is done 
in a machine in the following manner ; but the operation, 



1 76 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

though easy to understand if seen, is not so easy to 
describe. The pins, first of all, are thrown upon the 
surface of a kind of sieve from a hopper or box, into 
which they are cast: higgledy-piggledy — heads and tails 
anyhow. By a shaking motion something like that used 
in a thrashing or winnowing machine, they gradually roll 
down a slope to the further end of the sieve. This sieve has 
only bars running lengthwise, not across, and these are 
close enough to prevent the pins from falling through, 
so that they all hang by their heads, point downwards. 
Thus they are now all in position alike, heads up like 
soldiers, tails down, and thus they advance in ranks down 
the inclined surface of the sieve. When a row arrives at 
the bottom, a bar or plate descends and separates the end 
row from the rest, holding it fast in position, while the 
paper, already creased and folded in another part of the 
machine, advances against the points and is pierced by 
them. Another simple movement drives them home. 

In pin-making machinery there are several differently 
constructed machines used by different manufacturers, and 
inventors are constantly devising new methods and new 
arrangements for accomplishing the end in view. And in 
this case some have contrived a machine in which the pins 
lie fiat on their sides in parallel and horizontal channels, 
Instead of being suspended vertically by their heads. It 
is capital exercise of the inventive talent of boys to con- 



PINS. 177 



trive to effect in one way what others have done in 
another, and onr young readers may now set to work with 
paper and pencil, and try to plan a pin-machine, or 
paper-sticking machine, for themselves. 

If they have skill to construct a model, it will tend to 
show them how many little details must be rigorously 
attended to, before any invention can be successfully com- 
pleted. They will learn also that, in all machinery, the 
greatest degree of accuracy is needed in shaping and 
fitting the various parts. A " bearing " out of square, 
a hole drilled with what may seem trifling inaccuracy, 
a wheel not mounted at right angles to its axle, will not 
only be a witness against the maker of bad workmanship, 
but will cause the action of the machine to fail altogether, 
and may possibly induce the inventor to cast aside as a 
failure a design which was in reality of great value and 
importance. Accuracy in drawing a design is not by 
any means less necessary than accuracy in a model, or 
in a machine. Indeed, it is in our humble opinion 
the one lesson to be learned by the mechanic before all 
others. He must never be content with " almost a 
fit," or " almost true to scale." From the very com- 
mencement of his boyish career he must determine to 
do always first-class work, or he will fall into the ranks 
of the bunglers, whose carelessness and inability are 
stamped upon all that they do. 



Chapter XII, 



HAIR-PINS, 




HAIR- PIN is a simple enough article, and withal 
a cheap one — a bit of wire bluntly pointed, and 
doubled in the middle. But examine it, and try 
if you can design a machine in your own mind 
to make one, a machine that shall be competent to turn 
them out by thousands of any given length, all bent 
exactly and uniformly in the middle. I know of no 
better exercise than this for boys of a mechanical turn of 
mind. Let them take up any simple article of everyday 
life which they have not actually seen made, and let them 
take pencil and paper, and try to hit off a machine that 
will do all that is required. All such machines are 
actuated by levers and cams, of which we have already 
spoken, and it is the cunning arrangement of these which 
gives motion to the several parts, and causes each to do 
its special work at a given moment. 



HAIR-PINS. 



179 



Now, to make a hair-pin we require to straighten the 
wire, gauge it to a certain given length, cut it off, point 
the ends, and bend it accurately and roundly in the 
middle. The straightening is always effected by dragging 
the wire between pins put zigzag fashion in a board or 
metal plate. These, by bending the wire this way and 
that, as it passes between them, take out the curl it had 
acquired from being wound upon a reel, and deliver it 
quite straight for any further operations required to be 
effected upon it. But even in this there is a little skill 







Fig. 55.— Straightening Wire. 

necessary in order to arrange the pins correctly, and there- 
fore they are not absolutely fixed in one plate, but in two 
or more, so as to admit a certain degree of adjustment, i.e., 
they can be made to stand quite in a line, or at various 
distances on either side of it. In fig. 55, one or more 
of the pins B D is fixed in a plate that slides in a direc- 
tion at right angles to the general line of the pins, which 
enables them to be fixed in the position found by repeated 
trial to be the best. 



i8o 



AMONGST MA CHINES. 



After leaving the pins, the wire passes through a guide- 
hole in a block of metal to the feed apparatus, which draws 
it along until its end touches a stop-plate in the point of 
the machine, and determines the length required for one 
pin. This is something like the feed of a sewing-machine 
in appearance, only the stitch is rather a long one. What 
is, however, the " cloth forwarder " in the one, is more of a 
vice in the other. We can perhaps make the action clear 
by giving it separately. 

Let the plate AA (fig. 56) slide between guide-bars CO 




Fig. 56.— Feed Action. 

fixed to the top-plate or bed of the machine, and let there 
be a thick piece D firmly screwed to it to form one side or 
jaw of the vice. B is the opposite jaw, of the shape here 
shown, and it turns on a screw or pin near the angle. On 
the face opposite the fixed jaw there are a few teeth point- 
ing towards A, and of the same shape as the teeth of an 
ordinary handsaw, so that the wire might be pulled forward 



HAIR-PINS. 181 



in the direction of the arrow easily, but would be caught 
by the teeth if attempts were made to pull it in the opposite 
direction. E is an elastic indiarubber spring ; F is a 
catgut or wire band passing round a pulley Gr, and then 
to a crank of considerable throw fixed to the upper re- 
volving axis of the machine. By the rotation of this 
crank the band F is alternately pulled and released ; and 
when released, E pulls the jaw B and the sliding-piece 
A in the contrary direction. Now, owing to the form of 
the jaw B, and to the fact of its being hinged near its 
angle, the indiarubber band will open it, and release the 
wire; but a pull of the band F will first close the jaw 
upon the wire, and then pull the slide itself forward, 
carrying a length of wire with it. As soon as the crank 
which effects this has passed its centre, the elastic band 
pulls back the slide, and at the same time opens the jaw 
of the vice which passes along the wire, but does not now 
take hold of it; and this backward motion will continue 
until, by its semi-revolution, the crank again exerts a 
pull upon the vice and slide. Thus it is that the vice 
brings a certain length of wire forward, and then goes 
back open jawed for a new supply. There are two ways 
of regulating this movement, so that the wire shall be just 
the right length. The crank may be adjustable, as ex- 
plained in the description of the planing-machine, so as to 
lengthen or diminish its throw at pleasure; or the wire 



i82 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

coming against the stop-plate, may be made to throw the 
feed action out of gear. Either will of course regulate 
the length of wire to be cut off for a single hair-pin ; and 
this cutting off is the next operation, and it is effected in 
the following manner : The knife is like one blade of a 
pair of large shears, the handle being very long, and the 
cutting part short, to give leverage. The cutting edge 
works close against a fixed piece of steel, which practically 
forms its other blade. Upon the same axle that carries 
the crank, and forming a continuation of its base, is a 
projection constituting a cam (A, fig. 57). 




Fig. 57.— Shears or Guillotine. 

This cam at each revolution engages with the long arm 
of the shears, and forcibly depresses the short end, causing 
the latter to descend upon the wire and cut it off, as will 
be understood easily by the aid of the drawing. These 
shears come into action the very instant the jaws release 
the wire and the latter touches the stop-plate. This stop 
is adjustable, and can be placed at any required distance 
from the cutter. A, the cam ; H, crank ; C, long arm of 
the shears ; D, the fixed jaw ; B, the wire ; and E, the axle 



HAIR-PINS. 183 



on which the crank is fitted. Hair-pins, though made 
rapidly, are less quickly turned out than ordinary pins, 
not being required in such great numbers. 

We now have simply a length of wire cut off, but not 
pointed at either end. The next movement is a very 
curious and ingenious one. The wire has to be rolled 
forward upon the bed of the machine, that it may be 
sharpened, at each end at the same time by the action of 
a pair of emery wheels or grindstones, revolving at a 
rapid rate, one on each side, these being put in motion 
by two bands passing from a large flywheel below. 
Another crank is the prime cause of the advance of the 
wire, and this gives motion to a flat rubber, which is 
made to press on the wire as it rests upon and. passes 
over it. 

This slide and rubber are represented in iig. 58. 
There is, first of all, a slide A, working to and fro upon 
the bed of the machine upon guide-bars D. This slide 
has fixed upon its upper surface bearings BC. The end 
of the connecting-rod from the crank K is hinged to one 
of these at B, and the tail of the lever, which forms part of 
the rubber H, is hinged at C. By the motion of the crank 
as it revolves, the slide A will be moved to and fro upon 
its guides, carrying also with it the rubber H, and this 
resting upon the wirey*, will cause it to roll over and over 
beneath it, carrying it forward ; but also, on the return 



1 84 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

stroke, carrying it backwards. Now, this latter motion 
has to be got rid of, because when the wire has been 
carried towards f 9 it requires to be released, that it may 
fall across a pair of hooks, of which one is seen at g. 
Hence it is that the rubber itself is hinged at C, instead 
of being made part of the slide A. Thus arranged, the 
tail-piece rests upon the end of the connecting-rod, shown 
again at M on a larger scale ; and as the crank advances 
and recedes from the rubber, the end of the connecting-rod 
oscillates up and down, alternately raising the tail-piece 



Fit 



of the rubber and allowing it to fall by the action of a 
spring not shown in the drawing. As the slide recedes, 
therefore, the part of the rubber resting on the wire is 
slightly raised, and is again lowered as soon as the wire 
next cut off is ready for its action. Each wire is thus 
rolled forward under pressure until it falls off into the 
pair of hooks g. 

We have already stated that during the forward-rolling 
motion of the wire its ends are brought into contact with 



HAIR-PINS. 



185 



a pair of rap idly- revolving grindstones. These are in such 
a position as to have only a very small part of their circum- 
ference above the level of the bed of the machine, so that 
they act only on the extreme ends of the wire, and render 
it conical and bluntly pointed. This will be easily 
understood without any additional drawing. The wire 
thus pointed now falls off the bed on which it lay, and 




Mg. 59.— Action of the Bending-Tool and Grindstone. 

rests in two small hooks attached to the front of the 
machine, and its centre is then, over the space between 
two grooved pulleys A and B (fig. 59). In this drawing WW 
is the wire, hh the hooks on which it rests ; it also lies on 
two pins pp. The grindstones are shown by the circles 
GGr. H is an upright bar which we may term a plunger, 
and it works vertically up and down by means of a crank 



1 86 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

and connecting-rod attached to it. Upon its face next 
the wire is a projecting knob K, which, as the plunger 
descends, comes down on the wire and bends it, carrying 
it between the pins pp and pulleys AB. The actual 
bending-tool, or knob K, is not attached to H as one 
with it, but is made to fall into a recess in the plunger 
so as to lie flush with its face, until, by the action of 
a stud in a fixed bar in front, it is pushed out so as to 
act on the wire, a second stud again driving it back 
into its recess, and so enabling it on its ascent to pass 
by the wire without coming into contact with it. The 
plunger and its projection or bending-tool are drawn 
separately at S, which is a side view of it. In this is 
seen the projection p on the opposite side of the bending- 
tool, which comes into contact alternately with the fixed 
studs 11 upon the stationary bar in front of it. The 
angular sides of the slides cause the peculiar action 
required, one pushing, the other pulling the bending- 
tool by means of its hook and wedge-shaped attach- 
ments. 

Whether we are read by any of our boys' sisters we 
can hardly tell, but if so, they will know at any rate 
of such modifications of hair-pins as are brought out 
from time to time; and, among others, of the corrugated 
form, in which the two legs are wavy instead of straight, 
being supposed less liable to fall from the head when 



HAIR-PINS. 187 



made in this way. This is done in a very simple and 
ingenious way, by merely using rollers and a bending- 
tool with corrugations on their sides, instead of smooth 
ones as shown in fig. 59. When these are used, they are 
arranged to turn on their axes and bring the corru- 
gated parts gradually against the wire, a spring drawing 
them back immediately. The corrugations, as seen in 
fig. 60, which represents the machine as seen in front 
only, extend round a part of the circumference of the 
pulleys. Such is the machine in all its principal details, 
by the aid of which tons of wire are converted into hair- 
pins for the use of the ladies ; and though comparatively 
simple, it is nevertheless a very cleverly-devised machine. 
We have added here lettered references to its several 
parts. 

AA, the cast-iron stand. B, flywheel on the main 
shaft. C, crank on the same shaft to give motion to 
the plunger F, through the medium of the connecting- 
rod D. EE, fixed guides in which the plunger works. 
II, grindstones worked from the flywheel by two cords 
not shown. MM, corrugated pulleys, as described. G, 
upper part of plunger, in which the bending-tool is 
fixed. H, fixed bar holding the angular studs pro- 
jecting towards the plunger, as represented at S in 
fig. 59. LL, springs acting upon the corrugated 
pulleys, as explained. KK, elastic cord attached to the 



i88 



AMONGST MA CHINE. 



feed R, to the opposite side of which is fastened the cord 
passing over the pulley J to the long crank Q actuating 




Fig. 60. — Hair- Pin Machine, front elevation. 

the feed. X, straightening pins, one of which is fixed tc 



HAIR-PINS. 189 



a cross dovetailed slide, to render it capable of adjust- 
ment. 

The whole of the movements required for the action of 
the different parts are obtained, it will be observed, from 
one main shaft and driving-wheel ; the second shaft and 
crank at the upper part, which actuates the guillotine and 
feed motion, not performing more than a partial revolution 
upon its axis, as it is only required to have a to-and-fro 
motion, and this is obtained from a crank upon the axis 
of the flywheel, from which a connecting-rod with 
a double or block joint extends to this second shaft. 
There are a few minor details which a maker would 
require to have specified, but the above will, we think, 
suffice to make plain the action of this machine. 





Chapter XIII. 



SHEET-METAL GOODS. 




HESE are even more numerous and more varied 
in form and character than those which are 
forged or cast, and there is a wonderful 
amount of ingenuity exercised in their manu- 
facture. Most of our young readers have probably stood 
beside the tinker and watched him at his work, or paid a 
visit to his superior fellow-craftsman, the tinman ; and 
they are, therefore, tolerably conversant with the mysteries 
of soldering up pots and kettles and saucepans, which 
are cut out of sheet tin, and hammered into shape upon 
anvils of various forms and sizes, and which are called by 
various names, according to the special work for which 
they are designed. These processes are, after all, very simi- 
lar to, and not of much greater difficulty than, modelling 
on paper and cardboard, in which gum replaces the solder 
and a pair of scissors the tinman's shears. But the pro- 
cess now about to be described is one that cannot be 



SHEET-METAL GOODS. 191 

carried out in this material, and consists in forming bowls 
and teapots, candlesticks, and other articles out of sheet 
metal folded, but not soldered; and in which there are 
neither seams nor creases. For shallow and open work, 
this is effected by the use of stamping-presses and dies of 
various forms — some of enormous power ; but other works 
are made by a process called spinning. 

Among the articles made by stamping are baking- 
dishes, meat-covers, silver dishes, spoons, ladles, and such- 
like ; while teapots, candlesticks, sugar-bowls, and such 
hollow ware as is bulged out, and therefore smaller at 
the mouth than elsewhere, are very generally made by 
spinning in the lathe. At first sight it would appear 
impossible by any process to convert a circular flat sheet 
of block tin, pewter, or other malleable metal into a tea- 
pot without any join. In fact, the same difficulty would 
seem to exist in making the little tinned-iron vessels 
called tart-tins, in which obliging cooks bake jam tarts 
for voracious schoolboys ; because it would naturally be 
expected that the metal would crease and pucker, the 
same as paper would, if we were to take a circular disc 
and turn it up all round. Such, however, is not the case 
under proper management. To understand the generally, 
accepted theory of this, a plate of metal must be supposed 
to be made up of an infinite number of minute particles 
or grains, which in a state of rest are held together by 



i 9 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

mutual attraction, but may by the application of force be 
separated and made to move about amongst each other 
and take up a different arrangement. In the present 
instance the power used is the stamping-press. Mallea- 
bility, or the capability of being spread out by hammering, 
which is the property of gold and silver, tin, lead, and 
some other metals, may rest upon the fact that their con- 
stituent particles are thus capable of readjustment as to 
position, without losing their mutual power of attraction ; 
brittle metals, having less of this innate cohesion, allow a 
complete disunion of their particles under a blow. If 
such is the case, it is easy to understand that the particles 
of metal which would otherwise cause plaits or puckers 
glide over each other, and become so rearranged as to pro- 
duce a perfectly smooth and even surface. Such is the 
theory accepted by scientific men, as accounting for facts 
otherwise incapable of explanation. The simplest form of 
hammer and die work is that by which a tinman hollows 
the lid of a kettle or makes a scale-pan. For this purpose 
he cuts a round disc of tin, and lays it upon a hollowed 
bit of hardwood turned out in the form of a bowl, and with 
a boxwood mallet, rounded at one end, he hammers the 
tin while it rests upon the block, until it gradually 
assumes the desired form. During this time he turns the 
piece of metal about in all directions, correcting any ten- 
dency to pucker which it assumes, and regulating the 



SHEET-METAL GOODS. 193 

strokes of the hammer accordingly. This requires but 
little skill or practice if the work is shallow, and any 
one of our young mechanics would succeed almost as well 
as a professional workman. An ordinary thimble is but 
a deep and narrow cup, the principle of its manufacture 
being the same ; but the deeper the article is, the more 
gradually the work has to be done, to avoid the unplea- 
sant contingency of knocking a hole through the centre of 
the disc of metal, instead of inducing it to take the de- 
sired form — a mistake that, no doubt, sometimes occurs 
even with skilled workmen, if the metal is not of 
good quality, or has been insufficiently annealed. For 
the action of a hammer upon metals is to consolidate 
the particles, and render them hard and brittle, and it 
becomes necessary to soften them by repeated heating 
and gradual cooling; or no deeply-recessed articles could 
possibly be made by stamping or rolling. In making 
dish-covers, therefore, and other similar articles, the metal 
is first placed between dies only slightly recessed, and, 
after their form has been imparted by a few blows, the 
sheet of metal is passed to the annealing-furnace, and 
then compressed between more deeply cut dies, and the 
operations of stamping and annealing are again and again 
repeated alternately, until a sufficient amount of relief 
is given to the article. The dies are of steel, and are 
recessed chiefly by hand, so that the cost of a set with 

N 



1 94 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

an elaborate pattern is very considerable. Special designs, 
moreover, are registered, and are the property of the 
designer, or of the manufacturer for whom he works ; for 
most large establishments keep artists upon the premises 
whose whole work is to invent new patterns for their 
employer. A visit to Elkington's suffices to prove how 
worthy of the name of Artist these trade designers are, 
who nevertheless simply work at so much per annum to 
supply food and clothing to themselves and their families. 
They are, in fact, many of them, men of whom the outer 
world knows nothing, and whose exquisite productions 
bring credit and honour and wealth to their employers, 
while their own names are absolutely unknown ; yet this 
order of things, unfair as it may appear at the first glance, 
cannot very easily be reversed. The busy and well- 
educated brain may be capable of designing, but after all 
the pocket of the capitalist only can bring its productions 
into the market, and the employer and employed are thus 
mutually benefited. It must not be supposed, either, 
that artistic talent of the class alluded to is badly paid ; 
certainly not by the leading manufacturers, who not only 
appreciate high art, but are always ready to give hand- 
some remuneration to secure it. A great majority of these 
artists are foreigners — chiefly Germans and Italians — for 
somehow or other John Bull has scarcely so good a head 
for originating an elegant design as he has for devising 



SHEET-METAL GOODS. 195 

the means of carrying it out in practice, and making it 
remunerative. Our schools of art, however, are trying 
hard to put Englishmen on a better footing in this respect, 
the rules of art and design being now satisfactorily taught 
by the most able professors of the day, and it is to be 
hoped that ere long our own countrymen will be better 
able in this respect to compete with foreigners. 
Probably, however, high-class artistic talent may prove 
to be in some sense national, and that our capacity for 
it is somewhat limited. If so, we must still be content to 
import design, and rest satisfied if in actual manufactures 
we are able to distance all competitors. Even now our 
position is a tolerably high one. 

Among the articles of daily use, which are to be seen 
in every house, made of sheet metal by the process of 
stamping or spinning, not one perhaps carries more deceit 
on its face than the ordinary door-knobs of brass. Like 
many human faces of smooth and sleek appearance, they 
appear to be what they are not. Looking solid, there 
is nevertheless little solidity about them. The part next 
to the lock, through which the small screw passes which 
secures it in its place, is a solid casting, with a square 
hole through it to receive the iron spindle by which the 
bolt is drawn back. This is turned in the lathe, with a 
groove at the end next the knob, which is dovetailed in 
shape, i.e., the brass is left larger at the outside of the 



196 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

groove than at the inside. Thus anything made to fit the 
groove could not be pulled off in either direction. The 
knob itself is cut out of sheet brass as a flat disc by one 
blow of a stamping-press, and by the process of alternate 
annealings and stamping between suitable dies it is first 
rounded and made like a half globe, and then ultimately 
folded so closely round the casting that its edge clips the 
groove turned in it. The whole is now polished in the 
lathe, and comes forth as if one solid knob of brass. It 
would at first sight appear as if it would be far easier and 
less expensive to cast the whole in one piece, but in reality 
so rapid and easy is the process above described, that the 
apparently inconsiderable saving effected in quantity of 
brass needed is of sufficient importance to make this 
hollow work the least costly and the most remunerative 
to the manufacturer. 





Chapter XIV. 

SCEEWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 

doubt our young readers have made use of 
these in their more or less successful attempts 
to rival the carpenter and blacksmith; but 
probably it has never occurred to them to in- 
quire by what means they are produced in such numbers, 
and so well finished. Wood screws especially, which are 
now so clean in thread and so nicely tapered, can hardly 
fail to have attracted a certain degree of attention, 
especially if comparison of them has been made with any 
of more ancient date, with their blunt ends and generally 
rough appearance. Here, again, is the result of well- 
arranged machinery cunningly devised and scientifically 
applied. In old days screws were produced by hand only, 
chiefly by women and children, who produced the thread 
by very imperfect means, after husbands, fathers, or 



1 98 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

brothers had forged the blank. If a screw is examined, 
it will be seen to consist of a head with a slit across it 
for the application of the screwdriver, by which it is 
driven into the wood — a shank, turned or otherwise 
formed, quite smooth and round — and a threaded or 
screwed part, sometimes of equal size throughout, but now 
generally taper towards the point, that it may be capable 
of being driven into the softer woods without the previous 
use of a gimlet. Now in old times these were produced 
as follows : First of all, a rod of iron of the requisite 
size was heated at the end in a forge fire, and when taken 
out was drawn down as a nail is forged by the blacksmith, 
but not so much as to form a point, the object being to 
produce a cylindrical blank with a blunt end. As this 
required to be of as nearly equal size as possible from 
end to end, it was finished between dies by help of a 
simple tool called an Oliver — but I know not how the tool 
obtained its name. Perhaps it will be understood with- 
out a drawing, as we have already trespassed somewhat 
heavily on the engraver. Imagine two upright posts, 
driven securely into the ground a short distance behind 
an anvil, and 2 or 3 feet apart. Between these, turn- 
ing at each end on gudgeons, was mounted a roller 
hooped with iron at each end, much the same as the axle 
of the wheel of a common garden-barrow, which, if a 
little longer, would fairly represent the roller in question. 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 199 

Instead of the spokes, imagine the end of the handle of 
a sledge-hammer to be inserted in the central hole, and 
so arranged that when this handle was horizontal the 
hammer's head would rest fairly upon the anvil. Over- 
head was a spring pole of ash or other suitable wood, 
from which a rope or chain descended to the handle of the 
hammer, so as to lift it about 2 feet from the face of 
the anvil. Now, imagine a short arm or spoke on the 
right hand of the hammer-handle, and a short distance 
from it, from which also a chain descended to a treadle by 
the right foot of the workman. By means of this treadle 
and short lever the hammer could be brought down with 
great force and rapidity, and after each stroke it would 
be raised up again by the spring pole from the face of 
the anvil, on which it would fall each time at precisely 
the same spot. This contrivance took the place of the 
second man or boy, usually called a striker ; and I can 
only suppose that some ingenious young shaver of the 
name of Oliver invented this contrivance to save his own 
labour while he sat down to eat lollipops or plan mischief. 
At any rate the machine, simple as it was, showed ingen- 
uity, and was a very efficient contrivance for the intended 
purpose. But though the arrangement as we have 
described it is correct up to a certain point, the end of 
the sledge-hammer and the anvil were formed respectively 
as two halves of a die in which the iron would take the 



200 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

required cylindrical form, both being hollowed out with a 
semi-cylindrical groove, so that when placed in contact, a 
perfectly cylindrical cavity appeared of the exact size of 
the shank of the required screw. Any number of blanks 
formed in these dies would consequently be precisely 
similar. The shank having been thus formed by a few 
rapid blows, the bar was cut off a little above it, and the 
head also formed by a few blows, while the blank was 
suspended by it in a " heading tool," which was merely 
a steel block with holes in it of the form of the head 
required. All this was done at one heat, and before the 
iron had time to cool below redness. These rough blanks 
were next passed to the turner, who, with a lathe specially 
adapted to the purpose, took off the rough outside, and 
perfected the shape of the head. There was another way, 
however, of forming the head as well as the shank, which 
is used at the present time by gunsmiths, and others who 
have frequent occasion to make their own screws. A 
cylindrical block of steel, with a tail-piece or projection, to 
enable it to be held in the vice, is bored with a hole of the 
exact size of the shank of the screw — a little less, there- 
fore, than the size of the forged blank. The edge of this 
is then filed into teeth something like very large file-teeth, 
and the hole is also enlarged at one end, and this also is 
similarly cut round with teeth. A blank is taken, and a 
saw-cut made across it for the screwdriver, but the latter 



SCfiEWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 201 

is put into the end of a brace — the smith's brace and bits. 
With this the screw-blank is driven through the grinder, 
and its head and shank are, at a single operation, beauti- 
fully turned and finished. A somewhat similar process 
was used to form the screw-blanks, but the dies were in 
halves, and made to spring open and drop the blanks as 
soon as the turning of their shanks was accomplished. 
There were from time to time various improvements made 
and patented whereby the process might be expedited and 
the work more satisfactorily accomplished, but these need 
not be entered into here. A visit to the Patent Office 
Library in Southampton Buildings, London, would do far 
more than we can do here in teaching the young mechanic 
the various ingenious modifications of the screw-blank 
machines of the days of their forefathers. 

The screw-blanks had now to be threaded, and this 
work was carried on at the homes of the workmen, who 
were paid by the gross. The result of the inefficient 
appliances used was a very inferior quality of screw, 
which, however, found an ample market when nothing of 
a superior kind could be obtained for love or money. 
The thread of a screw may be formed, and was formed 
for some time, by a screw-plate, i.e., a plate of steel with 
a hole in it, which had a thread cut inside it by means of 
another screw or tap made of hardened steel. After such 
thread was cut, the plate itself was hardened, and would 



202 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

form a thread upon any metal softer than itself. But 
this thread was of little strength, because it was burred up 
and not clearly cut, and in all screws made thus (and the 
process is used constantly for small screws) there is this 
fault still prevalent. But if a thin tile or small metal 
saw is inserted into the hole in the screw-plate, and two 
or three notches are cut quite through the threads into 
the plate beyond it, we obtain certain cutting edges 
at each notch, besides places for the escape of the metal 
shavings formed during the process. Screws, therefore, 
made by such a plate are very much better, because the 
thread is partly cut and partly formed by the compression 
of the metal. But by a further improvement the 
screw-plate was replaced by dies. 

Suppose the plate made of steel, half or three-quarters 
of an inch in thickness, and after being drilled and 
tapped, sawn through so as to divide it across the centre 
line of the hole, a pair of screw dies would be formed, 
and if these were placed opposite to each other in a pro- 
per clamp or holder, they could be tightened on the 
blank as the work proceeded. It was by similar dies the 
blanks were cut with a thread in the wood screws we are 
describing. The blanks were fixed one by one in a kind 
of chuck in a lathe-head, and the dies, standing open, 
were made to enclose it, and gradually brought together 
until the thread was as deep as required. It was a toler- 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 203 

ably quick process, but the head was turned separately, 
and altogether the screws could not be made very 
cheaply, unless the work was too rapidly and carelessly 
done. No other plan, however, was made use of for many 
years. 

But some ingenious individual, whose name, however, 
we do not know, conceived the plan of making screws of 
wire, similar to the way in which pins are made, and 
which we have already described in this volume ; and 
although, of course, the various parts of the machine 
needed great strength, owing to the fact that the wire for 
the larger screws required to be of considerable size, this 
plan has now superseded entirely the old method of 
making the screws by hand. The process is precisely that 
of pin-making as regards the formation of the blanks, 
but the grindstone is no longer needed. The wire is 
drawn from the swift, or reel, cut off by a guillotine 
action, and the head formed by two or three blows from a 
suitable punch. The blank then drops into a box or other 
suitable receptacle, in which it is conveyed to another 
machine difficult to describe, but of great ingenuity. 
Imagine a revolving wheel without a rim — a wheel, in 
short, with spokes only, each spoke being forked at the 
end. These forks dip into the reservoir of screw-blanks 
as the wheel revolves upon its axle, and picks them up 
one by one by their heads, and in addition carries them 



204 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

past a small circular saw revolving at great speed, which 
in a moment cuts the nicks for the screwdriver. The 
blanks then drop into a basket ready for further opera- 
tions. They are now placed in a lathe-chuck one by one, 
and instead of being screwed by a pair of dies, they are 
made to traverse to and fro, while a fixed tool cuts the 
thread deeply and cleanly, leaving it quite sharp and 
bright. Even this description, however, of improved 
mode of manufacture hardly gives an account of to-day's 
screwing machinery, so rapid have been the changes of 
late years, and to such high perfection has the machinery 
been brought. In fact, there is now little left for the 
exercise of the skill of workmen, who are only called 
upon to empty backets of screw-blanks into the various 
hoppers, from which they are delivered into the machines 
by automatic action, and are turned, cut, nicked, and 
screwed by a succession of mechanical contrivances with- 
out any intervention of the human hand. 

The improved machinery, of which Messrs. Nettlefold 
k Chamberlain of Birmingham are the chief proprietors, 
was originally introduced into this country from America, 
which has supplied us with so many inventions for the 
supersession of hand labour. From America came the 
plan of using tapering blanks, and making the screws 
with sharp points, like that of a carpenter's gimlet, 
which, on the whole, was the most valuable of all the 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 205 

improvements made from time to time in these well- 
known little articles of daily use. 

Of late wire Bails have come into extensive use. They 
too originated abroad, and may be seen in fig-boxes and 
similar cases from Turkey, France, and elsewhere. They 
were introduced in the Exhibition of '51 as Eussian 
nails, but whether invented in that country or not, we 
cannot say. No doubt the idea was gained from the pin 
manufacture, as it was comparatively an easy matter to 
make similar machines of more solid construction strong 
enough for these nails, or for screw-blanks. They are 
easily driven into soft wood, and not being wedge- 
shaped like the forged nails, have no tendency to split the 
material. If one of these nails is taken in hand, the grip 
of the vice-like clams by which they are held while being 
headed will be easily seen, as no care is subsequently 
taken to obliterate it ; and the roughness thus formed 
just below the head no doubt adds to the security of hold 
which they take in the wood. They are even, in spite of 
this, rather too easy to draw, but are very handy to use, 
besides being very much lighter and of less bulk than 
ordinary nails. Pins, nails, and screws depend, there- 
fore, it will be seen, upon machines of precisely similar 
description, and are turned out not only of very beautiful 
finish, but in such abundance as to be cheap enough for 
all to buy who need them. 



2o6 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

How pins are made, and whence they come, we know, 

Bnt it remains a mystery where they go. 

Millions are yearly made, and yet how rare 

The cry, " Behold, a pin is lying there ! " 

One solitary pin ! alone upon the floor, 

Where we should have expected half a score ; 

And even if we searched the dustman's bin, 

'Tis ten to one we shouldn't find a pin. 

And yet they go, soon lost to sight and sense — 

'Tis well they can be bought at small expense. 

But 'twas not always thus — in years gone by 

To own a pin was quite a luxury. 

" Pin-money " then was claimed by every dame, 

And husbands found 'twas no mere empty name ; 

But in these days husbands would gladly pay 

For pins to use and pins to give away, 

If " pin-money " required by wife and mother 

Did not say one thing while it meant another ; 

But count the cost, and husbands cry, " God bless 'em ! 

Our wives must need a lot of pins to dress 'em ; " 

For pins, though cheap, imply a lot that's dear 

(Mysterious items of a lady's gear) 

To stick them into. Dressmakers can say 

For what et ceteras pin-money must pay, 

Such things we know not — and we dare not ask. 

Ours is an easier, more congenial task, 

To teach how pins, and nails, and screws are made 

To meet the stern necessities of trade ; 

This is a pleasant subject — but the other 

We gladly leave to bride, or wife, or mother. 

Having, however, been beguiled by our very trouble- 
some and not very polished muse to go astray somewhat 
from the even tenor of our way, we must return to our 
sober, prosaic statement of facts about screws, with which 
we have as yet hardly done. Passing from the wood 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 207 

screws used by carpenters, the formation of which we 
have now described, we may turn our attention to the 
manufacture of bolts and nuts, of which, since the estab- 
lishment of railways, the number required every year is 
simply beyond calculation, and gives employment to the 
operatives in many large factories in the hardware 
districts. 

SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 

These are, indeed, things of daily use. Not a machine 
can be made without a number of them, and if you were 
to walk along the railway, you would see, at the junction 
of every rail with that next to it, an iron plate, called a 
fish-plate, on each side, with four screw bolts and nuts 
to keep all secure. This will give you an idea of the 
enormous number in use — and indeed number is not 
considered, for these things are sold by the ton. Now, in 
order to give an idea of what is meant by a labour-saving 
machine, I shall first tell you how bolts and nuts are 
made by hand, which a few years ago was the only 
method known, and then I will describe the present mode 
of operation. 

To begin with the bolt. If the head was to be very 
large in proportion to the size of the shank, the smith 
took a rod of iron the size of the latter, heated it in 
his forge fire, and cut it off, probably by help of an 
assistant or striker. He then took a rod of square bar, 



208 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

heated, and bent it round the nose of his anvil until it 
had assumed the shape of a ring the size of the bolt. It 
was then cut off and placed over one end of the bolt, and 
both again heated to a welding temperature, and the two 
were then hammered until the union was complete. If 
the head of the bolt was to be six-sided, which was often 
the case, it was hammered on a swage-block, or block of 
iron with a deep notch in it, and turned over in this 
again and again until the head was properly formed. 
Then, as in all probability this process left the part in a 
very rough, unfinished condition on its upper and lower 
faces, these were rectified in a proper pair of swages after 
the bolt had been reheated, and subsequently the file was 
used to render the head complete. At other times, if the 
head was not required to be of so large a size, it was 
hammered and swaged up out of the solid metal, and thus 
made in one piece with the shank of the bolt, which had 
then to be screwed to the requisite length with stock and 
dies. The heading-tool was similar to that used for nails, 
namely, a bar of case-hardened iron or steel with holes in 
it, through one of which the shank was passed while the 
heated iron left on the upper side of the plate, and which 
was purposely left of larger size, was spread out on all 
sides by the hand-hammer ; but for bolts the hole was 
square, to give that form to the neck of the bolt just below 
the head. This is always necessary in a screw-bolt, to 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 209 

prevent its turning round under the action of the wrench 
used to tighten the nut. The Oliver already mentioned 
was a great improvement upon the ordinary hammer 
which had been hitherto used, both for forming the head 
and the shank, and for many years this was all in the 
way of machinery used in the manufacture of bolts and 
nuts. But as the demand for these articles increased, the 
need was felt of some readier method, and the ingenuity 
of inventors was successfully aroused, with most gratify- 
ing, because practical, results, and the whole system of 
bolt-making was revolutionised. 

In the first place, the lengths of iron requisite for the 
bolts are cut off by a single stroke of a cutting-press, 
which only requires to be continually fed " from morn till 
dewy eve," and not unfrequently from eve till morn 
again. The short pieces thus produced are carried in 
boxes or on hand-barrows to a lad who stands before a 
furnace, the thick iron door of which is pierced with a 
number of holes, each of a size to receive a single bar. 
Into these holes the bars are placed, and while that part 
which rests in the holes is only partially heated, the short 
bit which is to form the head, being exposed to the full 
heat of the fire, soon attains a white heat. It is then 
withdrawn, and tossed to a lad or man who presides over 
the press which has superseded the Oliver. The lower 
part, or anvil, as we may call it, consists of a pair of 



210 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

strong dies, which, when closed, form a square hole like 
that of a heading tool above, but a round hole of the size 
of the shank of the bolt below. In these dies each bolt 
is placed, and upon the heated end descends with irresist- 
ible force, but with a most deceitful quietness, a hollowed 
die of the form required for the head of the bolt — and in 
a moment the work is complete — the dies which hold it 
open, and a shapely blank falls out upon the earthen 
floor. The lad who attends the furnace has always a bolt 
at the proper heat for the heading-press, which he picks 
out of its cell the instant it is ready, supplying its place 
from the heap of bars at his side, so that there is never 
a moment's delay, and the supply is unremittingly kept 
up. The rapidity of the process is therefore exceedingly 
great. 

The screwing of the bolts, which is in a great measure 
left to the superintendence of women, as there is little 
labour required from those who attend to the several 
machines, differs hardly at all from the method used in 
forming wood screws. The bolts are chucked in a machine 
similar to a lathe, and the cutting tool forms the thread 
upon it as it traverses. There are, as might be expected, 
modifications of the machine, but the principle is always, 
as a matter of course, identical in all. Either the tool 
traverses at a given rate, or the bolt ; the speed of 
traverse depending on the number of threads required to 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 211 

be cut in one inch of the length of the bolt. It is easy 
to understand how rapidly the above process of making 
bolts has superseded the old plan ; one great advantage 
in all machine-work being, that any number of such 
articles can be made with perfect uniformity in size and 
shape. The threads, too, are cleanly cut, and very much 
deeper than those formed by the screw-stock of the black- 
smith, or the dies hitherto exclusively used for this pur- 
pose. In some machines, however, recently patented in 
America, dies are again introduced, but of a far superior 
pattern to the usual kind. Of our own inventors in this 
department, Sir Joseph Whitworth stands facile princeps. 
Not only did he greatly improve the dies used with the 
6crew-stock, but he introduced the system of standard 
pitches — i.e., the number of threads to the inch is always 
the same for any given diameter of bolt ; so that if a nut 
were lost from any machine, or any bolt required to be 
replaced by a new one, there would be no difficulty in 
matching the thread. 

If we have, in the machines which I have described, 
instances innumerable of economy of manufacture — time 
and material being managed so as to ensure the utmost 
attainable profit — another kind of economy may often be 
witnessed in the doings of the workmen, of which the 
following is a sample : At the time of my visit to a 
manufactory of this kind the dinner-hour was drawing 



2 1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

near, and I had an opportunity of observing an ingenious 
and economical adaptation of means to a desired end. The 
camp-kettle being placed on the ground, the red-hot bolts 
as they fell from the machine were ranged neatly round 
it, thus supplying the heat required to boil the tea or 
soup without expenditure of fuel. This is ordinarily done 
by the men at each meal. 

The nuts for these bolts are made in a similar way to 
the bolts themselves. A man, standing by a furnace or 
forge, places in the fire a flat bar of iron, of which he heats 
a length of perhaps 2 feet at a time. Close by him is 
a strong punching-machine, the cutter of which is fur- 
nished with a central pin to form a hole in the nut, and 
the punch and die, or block over which it rises and falls, 
are so shaped as to give to the nut its proper form when 
the cut is made. Thus at every stroke a nut is severed 
from the iron, bored, and finished, with the exception of 
the screw thread. During this operation a stream of 
water flows continually over the punch and nuts, which 
drop into an iron box at the rate of about fifty a minute. 
As two or three bars are kept at once in the fire, one is 
always ready to be drawn and placed in the machine 
The bolts and nuts thus made are next carried to the 
workmen and women whose office it is to cut the threads 
on each, and thus finish them ready for the market. The 
shop in which these final operations are performed is in 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 213 

the form of a long well-lighted shed, in which screwing- 
machines are ranged in long rows, the whole being 
worked by a series of bolts coming down from a shaft 
overhead, on which a pulley is fixed over each machine. 
On the driving shaft of the latter is a fast and loose 
pulley, one revolving with the shaft on which it is immov- 
ably fixed, the other running easily upon it. To stop or 
start the machine it is only necessary to shift the strap 
from one pulley to the other. The nuts are here fed 
up to the tap one by one, and a single passage of the 
latter through them perfects the thread. I daresay most 
of our young readers have noticed that the old-fashioned 
square nuts are seldom seen now, even at the shop of the 
village blacksmith. These used to be cut with a chisel 
from a square bar heated to redness, and a central hole hav- 
ing been made through it by a punch, a thread was cut by a 
tap, and the whole was finished by a few strokes of a file. 
These nuts were either weak or unnecessarily clumsy. 
The corners were strong but the sides weak, and if the 
latter were widened by using a broader bar of iron from 
which to cut them, the nut became so large as to be out 
of all proportion to the bolt. Hence the hexagonal or 
six-sided nut was introduced, which being the nearest 
possible approach to a circular one, gave equal strength 
at all parts of its circumference, while it enabled the 
ordinary screw-wrench to be applied, which was used pre- 



2 14 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

viously for square nuts. But it is not every one who can 
file up correctly the six sides of such a nut, and, indeed, 
to do so is such a proof of skill in the use of a file, that 
it has been generally made a test for the candidates for 
the Whitworth Scholarship. Since the introduction, 
however, of machine-made nuts, the blacksmith has been 
able to purchase them of all sizes as blanks, and all he 
has to do is to cut whatever thread he may require by 
means of a tap. Sometimes eight instead of six sides 
are given to nuts, but though these are theoretically 
more perfect than the others, the ordinary wrenches, 
unless very well made, and in perfect condition, are apt 
to slip round without turning them, and the corners thus 
get rubbed off. Machine-made nuts being formed between 
dies, are beautifully made — somewhat thicker in the middle 
than at the edges, and with a raised circular surface on 
each side, which gives them the appearance of having 
been turned on each face in the lathe. This is, indeed, 
done to give them a more perfect finish, if they are 
required to be bright to match the machine in which they 
are to be used. 

Having had occasion, in treating of bolts and nuts, to 
speak of the general use of pressing or stamping machines 
in their formation, I may here remark that this process has 
been of late years very extensively applied to forgings of all 
descriptions in which a repetition is constantly required of 



SCREWS, BOLTS, AND NUTS. 215 

the same outward form. Exact imitation of any desired 
pattern was only attained for many years by the process 
of casting, but these productions of the foundry being very 
brittle, were not suited for articles likely to be subjected 
to concussion. A piece of wrought iron, however, heated 
to whiteness, and placed between the dies of a stamping- 
press, is readily brought to the desired form without de- 
priving the metal of its toughness and malleability, and 
the form can of course be repeated as often as may be 
desired. The value of such an application of the stamping- 
press is therefore beyond calculation, owing to the 
innumerable articles in everyday use which demand the 
repetition of the same form, unaccompanied by the defects 
inseparable from cast iron. 




Chapter XV. 



MACHINES FOR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD, 




N addition to the innumerable articles made of 
metal, there are a large number formed of wood, 
and for the more speedy and economical pre- 
paration of this material machinery has of late 
years been extensively called into action. Metal and 
wood work must of necessity be to a certain extent 
mutually dependent on each other, and their manufacture 
has always gone on side by side, but of late the softer 
material has been gradually replaced by the harder, with 
more or less practical advantage. The old wooden walls 
of England, the raw material of which was that British 
oak of which we were so justly proud, and which well 
typified the hearts of oak of our brave seamen, have to a 
great extent disappeared. The splendid frigates with 
which our many glorious victories were won no longer 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 217 

ride in triumph upon the ocean wave. They have given 
place to those unwieldy-looking ironclads which have on 
more than one occasion earned but too justly the significant 
name of " iron coffins," and whose outline will never bear 
comparison with the graceful form of the old wooden ships 
that sat or sailed so proudly upon the waters. Never- 
theless, it must be confessed that ironclad and heavily- 
armoured ships have become a sad necessity, owing to the 
extraordinary power of the guns against which they must 
henceforth be matched. The mass of iron which, with 
these guns, can be readily and accurately sent against a 
ship from the distance of a mile — guns which, with less 
accuracy, will hurl a heavy shot three times that distance, 
has rendered wooden ships utterly useless, and altogether 
modified the details of warfare. And if we turn from 
vessels of war to vessels of peace, we recognise also here a 
similar change from wood to metal ; and in our various 
public buildings, and notably our railway stations in large 
cities, we cannot fail to notice the displacement of 
wooden roofs by lighter and more durable structures of 
iron and glass. Nevertheless, wood can never be wholly 
replaced by metal, and although iron beams may take the 
place of wooden ones even in private houses, we should 
hardly be contented to give up our wooden floors in 
favour of the more durable material. Hence wood must 
of necessity occupy an important place, and will always 



218 . AMONGST MACHINES. 

be extensively applied to those manifold uses for which it 
is so beautifully adapted ; and machines for the speedy and 
accurate conversion of this raw material are every year 
coming into more general use. To begin with that well- 
known implement, the saw, — how slowly, and with what 
vast amount of monotonous labour it is made to take its 
course through the timber which has to be cut into planks 
and boards ! Even the honour of being top sawyer can 
hardly recompense the workman for the unremitting 
exertion he is called upon to exercise in the prosecution of 
his task; and as to him who is below, with the sawdust 
threatening to blind him, and the end of the saw taking 
its course in dangerous proximity to his body, his place 
can scarcely be described as an enviable one. Yet for 
centuries all the timber needed for the various purposes of 
trade had to be reduced by these means to the required 
form. But before the inventors of the steam-engine had 
given an impulse to our manufacturing industries, such as 
was never previously felt, a machine had been invented 
and extensively used to take the sawyer's place — the 
motive power being generally a stream of water, but some- 
times a windmill. The arrangement was very simple, and 
by no means difficult to carry out practically. 

A number of saw-blades, placed side by side at such 
distance apart as equals the proposed thickness of the 
planks, are fitted to a cross bar at each end, these cross 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 219 

bars being also united by side pieces so as to make up a 
rectangular frame. This frame is constructed to slide up 
and down vertically within an outer frame ; the up-and- 
down motion being imparted to it by a crank, to which 
either the top or bottom cross bar is attached. The axle 
of this crank is also that of the flywheel of the engine 
from which the motive power is obtained. The saw- 
blades can be arranged at any desired width apart by 
means of wedges or screws. The timber to be sawn 
rests upon a series of horizontal rollers in front of these 
saws, and motion is given to these by the engine, so that, 
as the work proceeds, the log of wood is gradually ad- 
vanced. It is evident that whereas a single blade passing 
once through the timber would only divide it into two 
parts, a single passage of this many-bladed instrument 
will cut a number of planks ; and so perfect is the action 
of the machine, that it may be almost left alone to do 
its work without attention. One man can at all events 
attend to several such machines. In a similar way, a 
very much narrower set of blades, arranged at a greater 
distance asunder, can be readily made to describe a curved 
path, such as is required for cutting out wheel-felloes, 
chair-backs, and any other articles of curved pattern. 
An automatic feed is, in this case, not so easy to arrange, 
and more attention to such labour - saving machines 
becomes necessary. 



*2o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

The inconvenience in certain cases of the reciprocating 
or up-and-down movement of the saw-blade, with the 
loss of time incurred in the up stroke, led to the inven- 
tion of the band-saw, which has come into extensive use 
in cutting out articles of complicated form. In this 
case, a long thin blade is joined together at the ends, 
so as to make one continuous band, the junction being 
so beautifully made as not to increase at that point the 
general thickness of the blade. The endless web thus 
formed is strained quite tight by being passed over two 
large pulleys, one of which is placed at some distance 
above, and the other below the platform upon which the 
material to be sawn is laid. In this platform is a slit 
through which the blade passes, and the teeth point 
downwards, so that the cut shall be in that direction 
and tend to keep the work down upon the platform as 
the operation proceeds. The workman has the pattern 
into which he desires to form the material plainly marked 
upon its upper surface, and with the hands he keeps 
turning it about so that the saw may trace the lines 
accurately. It requires a little practice to do this, as a 
very little undue pressure will give the saw a bias in the 
wrong direction, and there is then no remedy for the false 
cut that has been made. With care and practice, however, 
very complicated forms are thus produced ; and the orna- 
mental letters seen on shop fronts, 2 or more inches 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 221 

thick, are frequently made in this way. The cutting 
being continuous, no time is lost, aDd the execution of 
such work is of course very rapid indeed. Many of these 
band-saws, moreover, are made of hard steel, and are 
employed not only upon wood but also upon brass, which 
can be cut in this manner almost as expeditiously as 
the softer material. 

In cutting smaller timber in any case where curved 
work is not required, the circular saw has come into 
general use, as its work is rapid and very true. It has 
also this advantage over the vertical sawing-machines, 
that it is easily arranged as a portable one, there being 
only needed a platform of iron, similar to a table, on 
which to fix it, and a farm engine as the motive power. 
These machines can therefore be hired out at any time, 
and are largely used to slit fir timber for making 
railway and farm fences. 

A circular saw is merely a round plate of steel, the 
circumference of which is cut into teeth similar to those 
of a pit-saw if for large work, or of a hand-saw if only to 
be used on light material. In the centre of the plate is a 
hole through which is passed an axle, and which also 
carries the pulleys or riggers for a strap from the fly- 
wheel of the engine. The axle is fitted to work in bear- 
ings below the saw-table, and a slit is made in the latter 
to allow about one-third of the saw to stand above it. 



2 2 2 AMONGST MA CHINES, 

The timber is laid upon a frame upon rollers, the end 
resting upon the surface of the table, and it is fed up to 
the saw by hand. 

At one side of the table stands up an adjustable fence 
or guide, which can be set at any required distance from 
the saw, to regulate the thickness of the boards or rails to 
be cut ; and as soon as one face of the timber has been 
trued, by having its uneven parts removed, it becomes a 
guide to the next cut, as it is pressed against the fence 
while the work is being driven forward. The saw is made 
to revolve with great rapidity, and the operation is a noisy 
one, but it is a very efficient and economical method of 
converting small timber. But the circular saw is not con- 
fined to the work of slitting timber, but is used as a very 
rapid means of cutting grooves, rebates, tenons, and othei 
forms. The slate-frames, of which such vast numbers are 
now required to meet the demands of our many schools, 
are all cut out with this instrument, and the groove also 
for the slate itself is similarly made. It is evident that 
if the saw is only made to project a very little above the 
surface of the table, and a piece of plank is run across it, 
the latter will not be divided wholly, but only cut from 
end to end with a longitudinal groove, and that the width 
of such groove will depend on the thickness of the saw. 
Moreover, two or more saws can be mounted on the same 
axle, each doing its own special work, so that many such 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 223 

grooves can be cut at once, or several strips cut at trie 
same time. And it is also easy to understand that if a 
thicker circular plate be taken and the edge turned to any 
required shape — bevelled on one side or both, or rounded, 
or cut into the shape of a moulding, and teeth be cut 
round it — it will cut grooves of similar section in wood or 
metal, or reproduce such moulding. 

It is by circular cutters of this nature that mouldings 
are now made in vast quantities for the use of carpenters 
and builders, instead of being made by a moulding-plane 
— a tedious and somewhat costly process. These circular 
cutters, whether for metal or wood, are often used in the 
lathe to plough grooves of given form, such as the V 
grooves needed for the slides of eccentric chucks, which it 
is very much more difficult to form with the file. Some- 
times the cutter is fixed in a suitable holder in the slide 
rest, and driven from the " overhead," while the work is 
between centres or mounted on the chuck or face plate ; 
and sometimes this mode is reversed, the work being 
clamped to the slide rest, and the cutters fixed in the 
mandrel. In a similar way stone is now sawn into slabs 
by circular saws without teeth, but fed by sharp sand 
and water, superseding, in a great measure, the old pro- 
cess of sawing by hand ; but our readers will readily per- 
ceive that when very large saws become necessary, as they 
are for work of considerable diameter, the power required 



224 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

to drive them is very great, and as no more than about 
one-third of the saw-plate can be employed, owing to the 
interference of the axle, vertical saws are more suitable 
for heavy and massive work, whether of wood or stone. 
The circular saw, nevertheless, is of such extensive use in 
works in which various articles of wood are manufactured 
on a large scale, that it now seems strange that we could 
have ever done without it ; and its use, from the rapidity 
with which, by its means, wood can be cut up into the 
forms most suitable for the further operations of the 
carpenter and joiner, is invariable in all parts of the 
civilised world. By far the greater number of wood- 
working machines have reached us from America, which 
is a veritable land of timber, though Sweden and Norway 
rival it in its pine forests, and supply us with vast quan- 
tities of wood of that particular kind ; and since the first 
Great Exhibition, in which nearly all the carpenter's work 
was executed by machinery, the prejudice against this 
mode of work has passed away, and all kinds of joinery, 
such as window-sashes, doors, staircases, and handrailing, 
can be bought at the manufactories, where large quantities 
of the usual standard sizes are kept in stock. Of course 
these are far cheaper than hand-made work, though fre- 
quently not quite so cleanly finished off. For green- 
houses, garden frames, fowl and pheasant houses, aviaries, 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 225 

and similar outdoor buildings, few persons would now fall 
back upon the village carpenter. 

Among the many appliances by which timber is con- 
verted, the wood-planing machine must here be noticed, 
as coming in order next to the machine-saw. Here again 
the work is performed by revolving cutters, which are not 
very dissimilar from the knives of some kinds of chaff- 
cutters, or of the lawn-mowers now so common. Steel 
blades with sharp-cutting edges are arranged round a 
cylinder or cylindrical frame, which is made to revolve 
with great rapidity, and the plank or board is made to 
pass evenly below it, being laid for this purpose upon a 
long level table of iron, and carried forward by gripping 
rollers. The whole is generally contained in a glass case, 
to prevent the shavings from flying about, as they are 
thrown off from the work in a perfect cloud. One great 
advantage of machine-work is the exact truth with which 
planks or timbers are worked squarely — the sides and 
faces at right angles to each other — this squaring up of 
carpenter's stuff being the very pons asinorum of aspiring 
amateurs and carpenters' apprentices, and being a work 
always of labour and difficulty even to more experienced 
workmen. The planing-machines remove this difficulty at 
once ; for while each of the broad surfaces of boards are 
thereby planed, and faced parallel and true to each other, 
rendering the thickness equal everywhere, cutters arranged 



226 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

for that purpose square up the edges at the same time. 
Nevertheless, if the latter are required to make any 
smaller or greater angle with the sides, or to be bevelled, 
these side cutters are able, by a simple arrangement, to be 
placed at the necessary inclination, and the required result 
is obtained with ease and exactness. By far the greater pro- 
portion of machine- work, therefore, as our readers will 
observe, is now done by revolving cutters of various kinds, 
and as a general rule these are stationary, and the work is 
made to traverse in the required direction. The advantage 
of a revolving cutter is that the action is continuous, there- 
by evidently saving time. When a carpenter saws or 
planes, the back stroke of the tool is of course thrown 
away, while with a circular saw or revolving plane there is 
no such back action. Time saved, it must be remembered, 
means cheaper production, as well as increase of quantity — 
both matters of very considerable importance when all 
classes of the community have to be provided with at least 
the necessaries of life. Eeciprocating action is never- 
theless in many cases a matter of necessity, and we must 
not dismiss the subject in hand without making a few 
remarks upon fret-saws, which have found a place now 
in so many private houses, and which afford a means 
of amusement of a very interesting, because artistic, 
character. The arrangement of a fret-saw may be varied 
in many ways to suit the fancy of amateur or professional 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 22- 



workmen, but primarily it is a very simple matter to 
plan such a machine, and to make it sufficiently well 
to' answer the required object. To convert the circular 
motion of a flywheel and axle into a rectilinear one is 
the first requirement, and the simplest and best known 
method is the crank with a connecting-rod or " pitman." 
This is the plan usually adopted, and is applied by 
straining the saw in a suitable frame, and attaching this 
frame to one end of such connecting-rod, or by omitting 
the frame, and tightening the saw-blade by connecting 
one end of it to a spring overhead of wood, steel, or 
vulcanised indiarubber, the blade being made to pass 
through a plate or saw-table upon which the wood to be 
sawn is placed. 

As many of our readers are in possession of lathes, and 
others are well acquainted with this tool, we may as well 
illustrate this subject by a drawing (fig. 61) of a simple 
machine to be attached to the mandrel, and driven by 
the foot, and it is designed to be made entirely of wood, so 
as to be easily constructed by an amateur. The base of 
the machine A is a piece of board 2 inches thick, and 
should be of oak, ash, or beech. It is to be a little wider 
than the lathe-bed, and accurately planed to rest fairly 
upon it. Under it is to be screwed a wooden block, just 
fitting between the bearers or cheeks of the lathe-bed, 
so as to retain it always in one position. Its length may 



228 



AMONGST MA CHINES. 



be 12 or 14 inches. B is a view of, the under side, 
C being the block, and E a square hole half an inch 



t * 



<P>- 



V 




X 




7^ 



"5 



IS 




! 



r^ 



! 



B 

D 



D 



Fig. 61.— Fret-Saw. 

each way, cut very cleanly at right angles to the. face 
of the wood, and quite through it. At D is seen what 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 229 

not only appears like a second block, but practically acts 
as such. It is, however, the end of the upright, which 
is here mortised into the base projecting below it, and 
slotted to receive the lever H, by means of which motion 
is communicated to the saw. To make this part quite 
clear the upright is shown again at K, and there will 
be noticed the main standard, the saw-platform P, the 
base X, the horizontal arm R, from which depends the 
indiarubber spring, the slit T through which the saw 
passes, and the slot S in the part of the standard which 
projects below the base to take the oscillating lever. The 
platform, of hard wood three-fourths thick, is notched out 
to fit the standard at one end, and is supported at the 
other by a couple of turned pillars, or by an upright 
standard of half-inch wood. In the profile of the machine 
A is the lathe-bed, and upon the mandrel is seen screwed 
a round disc of wood, an inch or so in thickness, into the 
face of which is inserted an ordinary wood screw. This 
acts as the crank or driver plate which actuates the 
machine, and converts the rotary movement of the man- 
drel into a reciprocating one. The further the screw is 
from the centre or axis of the disc, the longer will be the 
stroke of the saw ; but this admits also of being varied 
by making several holes in the oscillating lever H. M is 
a squared bar of mahogany, or it may, if preferred, be of 
any other hard wood, or of metal, but a piece of Spanish 



230 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

mahogany answers very well. At one end is screwed into 
it a small brass eyebolt, and at the other is cut a slit 
to receive the tail of a little brass clamp by which the saw 
is fastened. This clamp is easily filed up, and is shown 
at Y. The tail part is filed flat to fit into the slit in the 
mahogany bar, and there is a slot and screw by which to 
secure the saw. A similar clamp has to be attached to 
the lower end of the indiarubber spring, which is itself 
attached to the horizontal arm by such another eyebolt as 
fastens the strip of mahogany to the link uniting it to 
the lever below. This link may be of wire or of catgut. It 
is here represented as made of wire screwed to take a 
small hand-nut. The wire is passed through the arm, and 
by means of this nut the tension of the saw can be 
regulated. The object of the square bar is to prevent the 
saw from turning round upon its axis. In making this 
simple but really efficient fret-saw, care should be taken 
to give ample length to the horizontal arm and platform, 
or only very narrow work can be done, because in sawing 
fretwork the material has to be constantly turned about 
in all directions in order to follow the pattern, and if the 
distance between the saw and the standard is not of toler- 
ably ample width, it is impossible to do this. If it should 
appear that the saw needs additional strain put upon it, 
as may sometimes be the case, the link connecting the 
screw on the crank-plate with the arm of the lever maj 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 231 

itself be a spring, and a bell-spring of coiled steel wire, 
purchasable at any ironmonger's, will be found to answer 
the purpose excellently. Its connection with the lever 
may be by a wire loop or link, of which the tail-piece 
may be screwed for a nut. Thus all parts can be regu- 
lated with the greatest nicety, and the saw kept tightly 
strained. This is very important, as otherwise it is sure 
to break. Although it is not our province here to do 
more than describe various machines and processes, we 
may add the remark that the material must be held down, 
and not suffered to rise as the saw ascends ; and an india- 
rubber ball with a length of tubing should be so arranged 
that, by compression of the former, at each stroke of the 
saw the dust may be blown away from off the work, so as 
not to conceal for a moment the lines of the pattern. 

Of course there are many other designs of fret-saws, 
and some of them are beautifully made in iron and brass 
with high finish and ornament, but the simple one here 
described will be found practically equal to any of these. 
In large manufactories, as, for instance, where fretwork is 
cut for the decoration of cottage pianofortes, the saws are 
worked by steam-power, and the platform is of large 
dimensions. The saws used make often 600 to 800 
strokes a minute, so that an elaborate pattern is traced as 
rapidly as it could be delineated by pen or pencil. There 
is only one more saw that we need describe, and which is 



232 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

by no means commonly seen, although for one special 
purpose it is of great service. This is the crown-saw — a 
steel band bent into a hoop, and brazed together like a 
band-saw, but very much wider and stiffer, and of small 
diameter. The teeth are formed upon the upper or lower 
edge, as may be most convenient, and the other is riveted to 
a circular plate, to the centre of the back of which a driv- 
ing axle is attached with its riggers. This saw was invented 
for cutting out the round sheaves or movable pulleys of 
ships' blocks. It can, of course, only cut circular pieces all 
of one size, but this it does with great ease and rapidity. 
We have said that no other machine-saw remained to 
be described, but there is yet one kind of circular saw 
of very large dimensions — so large that it cannot be 
made of a single plate, but requires to be built up 
in sections. One side is flat, the other is bevelled. 
The actual saw or cutting part is formed of segments of 
steel, which are riveted all round the edge of the cast- 
iron plate which forms the main body of the saw, and to 
the centre of one side of which the axle is fitted ; for in 
this case the axle does not pass through, as in the smaller 
saws, but is attached to the convex side only, somewhat 
similar to the way in which the face plate is attached to 
the mandrel of a lathe. This is the saw used for cutting 
veneers, or those very thin boards of various handsome 
woods, which are glued down upon the cheaper sorts by 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 233 

the operation called veneering. This is extensively used 
for all kinds of furniture. The log, squared up as truly as 
possible, is made to traverse across the flat side of the saw, 
being just near enough to detach a very thin slice, almost 
like a broad shaving. Being so thin, this is easily bent 
aside, and curls off on the bevelled or convex side of the 
saw, and is guided by upright rollers out of the way, in a 
path almost at right angles to that pursued by the timber 
itself. The thickness of each slice is regulated by a 
screw adjustment. Thin as such veneers are, there is 
a still thinner kind, which has been lately introduced 
to supply the place of wall-paper, and which is said to 
be as easy to hang as the latter. The object is to give 
to rooms the appearance of being panelled with oak, 
mahogany, or other wood of handsome appearance. We 
believe this is accomplished by a knife edge, and not by 
a saw — the principle being that of a plane ; but we have 
not seen the work done, and cannot speak certainly upon 
the point. 

BORING AND MORTISING MACHINES. 

In addition to saws and circular cutters, such as planes, 
we require in large manufactories various machines for 
cutting holes in wood, both round and rectangular, and also 
machines for cutting tenons. Such as are made for cutting 
round holes go by the general name of boring-machines ; 
the others are usually called mortising - machines. The 



234 AMONGST MACHINES. 

former are very similar to the drilling-machines, of which 
drawings have already been given in this volume ; but the 
tools used are mostly of the character of screw-augers, 
which work easily and cleanly. Hard woods, however, re- 
quire stronger tools, like the augers used by wheelwrights. 
These are made in sets of varying sizes, and fit into a 
spindle driven by steam-power. In some machines this 
spindle works vertically, in others horizontally ; but in 
both cases there is a level table of iron on which to lay 
the work, and generally also clamps and guides to hold 
it, and to ensure its advance in a proper direction as the 
operation proceeds. With these any number of pieces 
can be bored exactly at the angle required and precisely 
alike, without any necessity for measuring and marking 
each individual piece. In the Great Exhibition building 
these machines were used to a greater extent than they had 
ever been before. The sash bars required to have gimlet 
holes made for the reception of the nails, all at precisely 
the same distance from the ends of the bars, and to effect 
this surely and rapidly there were long benches arranged, 
or platforms like very long tables, upon which were a row 
of horizontal borers or gimlets revolving at great speed, 
and projecting horizontally towards the lads or men who 
attended to the work. An upright light framework be- 
hind allowed the long rails to rest against them in a 
sloping position, while the other end rested on the table. 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 235 



The gimlets thus made the requisite holes in them at a 
certain fixed angle, and all were "bored exactly alike. 
This is merely an instance of the immense advantage of 
machinery over hand lahour in cases where a very great 
number of articles are required of one exact pattern. It 
would not generally answer the purpose of a carpenter to 
use such machines, because his work is of so varied a 
nature. In all manufactories the case is different. 
Thousands or even tens of thousands of pieces of boards 
may be required exactly alike in size and shape, and with 
holes in the same relative position, and these could neither 
be produced fast enough nor cheaply enough, unless they 
were shaped and bored by machinery. The result, too, of 
its introduction has been the possibility of increasing not 
only the necessaries but the comforts and luxuries of life, 
and enabling the middle and poorer classes to obtain what 
before was only to be had by people of large means. 
Orchard-houses, for instance, greenhouses, garden frames, 
and vineries of all sizes, are now everyday affairs, and by 
no means unknown in cottage allotments ; and articles of 
household furniture are likewise by the same means so 
cheapened, that what at one time was a luxury only for 
the few, has become the possession of the many. Not 
many years ago I remember seeing no less than 3000 
wheelbarrows lying ready for shipment, all precisely 
'alike, the frame only of the bottom being in each case 



236 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

put together, but the sides and ends merely sawn out, 
and bored where necessary. The whole could be put 
together with no possibility of difficulty or chance of 
error, and the entire 3000 had been so far constructed in 
the course of a few days. In the same way, by the appli- 
cation of machinery, a close railway truck was made 
within twelve hours, to show the possibility of so doing. 
The iron-work was cast, forged, turned, and shaped ; the 
timber sawn, planed, shaped, bored, and fitted ; and the 
whole put together, every bolt and nut and screw in its 
place, within the prescribed period. With equal rapidity 
and exactness of workmanship the gun-carriages and 
ammunition-carriages are made in time of war. 

Mortising-machines are chisels fitting into a socket in 
an upright or vertical frame, so as to rise and fall only 
in a perpendicular direction. The upward and downward 
movement is frequently effected merely by a long arm or 
hand lever in a very simple manner. Imagine a lever, 
for instance, like a pump-handle, hinged at one end, and 
a chisel fixed to it near the fulcrum by a joint — this chisel 
moving in guides to keep it upright — add a table below 
on which to rest the wood, and you have at once the main 
part of a mortising-machine. But in addition to the 
above would be required for practical use a clamp to hold 
the work, and also some kind of feed motion to shift it 
forward little by little between each stroke of the chisel, 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 237 

or the latter would always descend on the same spot, and 
not cut a mortise. 

This is managed by attaching to the vice or clamp 
which holds the wood a finely-cut screw, which in self- 
acting machines is turned by automatic gearing, a very 
little at each stroke, thus causing a slow movement of the 
material in a right line across the table. There is not 
always a feed action in the contrary direction, but the 
socket which carries the chisel is round, and can be 
turned at right angles to its former position, being 
retained there by a stop, after having been turned by 
a short hand-lever. In some machines, however, the 
reversing action is contrived by giving the table a move- 
ment upon a central vertical axis, which places the vice 
in any desired position, and of course the wood also. 
Thus, by simple means, mortises can be cut which are 
not rectangular, and may also be arranged radically 
around a common centre. Instead of the long hand- 
lever to pull down the chisel at each stroke, the latter 
is sometimes acted on by an eccentric cam like that 
used in the machines for punching and shearing iron, 
already described and illustrated. There is only the 
necessity here again of converting circular motion into 
rectilineal, different methods of effecting which we have 
alluded to before. 

Among wood-working machines are also those of 



238 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



American invention for tenoning and dovetailing. The 
former consists essentially of two circular saws at the 
exact distance apart to give the proper thickness to the 
tenon, the parallel sides of which are thus both cut at 
the same time, and the cheek pieces are then cut off by 
a single circular saw. The latter alone is quite sufficient 
to diminish labour in cutting a tenon, but the latter then 
needs to be marked out by a gauge, as it is marked for 
hand-saw work, whereas by self-acting machinery and 
permanent stops or guides there is no need thus to 
measure at all. The dovetailing -machine is far too 
complicated to be explained without more drawings than 
we have space or opportunity to give here, but the 
principle of it consists in setting pairs of circular saws 
at an angle to each other upon separate spindles, so that 
the cuts tend to a common point. This machine has 
not come into anything like general use, and is of 
course of very limited application. A good deal of work 
is now done by means of shaping-machines used with a 
dummy pattern of iron, and revolving cutters, acting simul- 
taneously upon the various parts to be worked. Imagine, 
for instance, an axe-handle of the usual crooked form, 
made of cast iron, and pivoted at each end on centre 
points, so that it could turn round and round as if it were 
fixed on an . ordinary lathe. This revolving motion is 
given to it, and there is a slide rest with a to-and-fro 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 239 

motion, capable of being imparted to the tool-holder by 
means of a tail-piece or rubber which comes against the 
iron handle. Thus, as the latter revolves, it makes the 
tool go in and out according to its own shape, while at 
the same time the tool-holder is carried lengthwise, from 
end to end of the machine. A bar of wood which is 
to be made into an axe-handle is also centred at each 
end, and made to rotate against the tool, so that as the 
latter advances or recedes, it cuts shallower or deeper 
according to the shape of the iron pattern handle which 
regulates its movements. The tool is not, however, a 
fixed but revolving one — in short, a set of gouges fixed 
round a circular block of cast iron, to which rapid rota- 
tion is given, and which cut more cleanly than a fixed 
tool. This machine is called a pattern or spoke lathe, 
because wheel-spokes are now so made in great quantities 
for agricultural implements and carriages. It is curious 
to watch one of these, owing to the peculiar restless 
variety of its motions ; but the work is done very quickly, 
and needs only to be cleaned off a little to render it 
quite equal to the best hand-work. 

There are none of these machines except the fret-saw 
at all suitable for amateurs ; but to those who have a lathe, 
the circular saw, up to about 6 inches diameter, presents 
a great many advantages. It is very easily mounted upon 



240 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

a spindle to run between the lathe centres, and a very 
nice platform can be bought of planed iron for fifteen 
shillings, with a slot for the saw, and a parallel guide 
complete. 

In the construction of any light articles in which the 
material does not exceed half an inch in thickness, the 
«aw can be driven by the foot with no greater exertion 
than is requisite for ordinary turning of wood ; but for 
material of an inch and upwards a good deal of power is 
required to drive the saw, and the work may be good for 
exercise, but is decidedly too laborious to be pleasant, 
especially if it is to be long continued. Circular saws 
are priced at so much per inch of. their diameter. One 
suitable for a 5-inch centre lathe — say 6 inches diameter 
— would cost from three to five shillings, and may be 
had second-hand very often for half that price, spindle 
and all complete. 

We need not say more of the few other wood-working 
machines, as they are after all little else than sawing and 
planing machines, modified in their details to suit them 
for particular operations. Grooving and tonguing as 
needed for floor-boards, mitring for picture-frames and 
similar articles, and various other modes of preparing 
work for joints, either at right angles or otherwise, are 
at last but modifications of the usual saw and chisel work 



CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD. 241 

of the carpenter performed by mechanical means, and 
machines called universal joiners are chiefly the combina- 
tion upon one frame or stand of the boring, sawing, and 
tenoning apparatus already described. 





Chapter XVI. 

PAPER-MAKING MACHINES, ETC, 

T is probable that not a few of our boys who have 
toiled over the rudimentary difficulties of writ- 
ing have almost wished that copy-books had 
never been invented, yet perhaps they have 
wondered how the paper is made of which the said copy- 
books are composed. And those boys who have passed 
through, and now almost forgotten, the mysteries of pot- 
hooks and hangers, and have dug and delved in the mines 
of classic lore, know all about the wax tablet and stylus 
with which the writers of old days had to be contented, 
or the papyrus rolls of Egypt, the tree bark, metal, and 
stone which served as a medium of recording passing 
events, and handing down for future generations the 
interesting history of occurrences which must otherwise 
have remained unknown. Even the sand upon the sea- 



PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 243 

shore lias served as a slate on which to trace the mys- 
teries of Euclid's pons asinonim, and many interesting 
problems were no doubt worked on that fickle tablet, to be 
erased and blotted out for ever by the returning wave. 

Terribly laborious must the work of the scribe have 
been in ancient days for want of a better material on 
which to write, and many, no doubt, were the experi- 
ments made from age to age to find a material to replace 
the various defective substitutes for paper then in use. 
Of these the most convenient and most durable were 
skins, prepared like our parchment and vellum, to receive 
and retain the writing with more or less probability of 
standing the wear and tear of use, or the destructive effects 
of atmospheric changes. But those who have had to 
write on this material know that, however well prepared, 
it is not pleasant to use, and that its natural greasiness, 
which hinders it from taking the ink properly, is never 
completely overcome. Its chief value as a writing material 
consists in its indestructibility, which of course renders 
it of the greatest possible service in legal deeds, wills, 
and suchlike, and public records which it is desirable to 
preserve uninjured, it may be, for many generations. 
But for general purposes we should hardly be satis- 
fied with this material ; and we can assure our boys 
that if no better substance for our work had been 
invented, these books for boys would not have seen the 



244 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

light. Yet whilst we write we can almost hear the 
sarcastic remark made, that in such case there would also 
have been a blessed dearth of Latin grammars and similar 
unlovable abominations, making it a questionable fact 
in the schoolboy mind, whether, after all, the blessings 
of the invention of writing-paper are equal to the evils 
thereof. Well, well, youngsters, time will modify even 
the difficulties of that question, and we may remind 
you that after the schoolboy and satchel all are past, 
Shakespeare has a word to say of another age, in which 
certain sonnets to young ladies' eyebrows demand the 
whereon and wherewithal to write, and possibly when 
that age of sighs has arrived, the true value of paper 
" cream laid " may begin to be appreciated. To the 
scholarly boy, with the " Balliol " or other prize in view, 
the question presents an altogether different aspect ; and 
if he has any regrets upon the subject, they are simply 
that paper was not invented and profusely used ages 
before it was actually known. 

To begin at the beginning we must go back for awhile 
from amongst machines to a period of paper-making by 
hand, which dates from a very early age, and comes down 
almost or quite to the present century. Indeed there is 
" hand-wove " paper to be had even now, and for certain 
purposes it appears to find special favour, though the 
quantity so produced has long proved utterly inadequate 



PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 245 

to meet the demand of modern times. Animal matters 
occupy, we believe, absolutely no place in the manufacture, 
vegetable fibrous substances being alone found suitable. 
These require to have a certain natural degree of tough- 
ness ; and although experiments have been made with 
substances which are deficient in this quality, they have 
not proved altogether satisfactory, as the resulting paper 
is too easily torn to be of sufficient durability. But for 
some of our daily newspapers, and similar publications, 
which are not generally required to last beyond a very 
limited period, paper made of straw and other naturally 
brittle substances is found to answer sufficiently well, 
and being cheap, is sure to meet with a satisfactory 
market. Probably further research may be rewarded by 
the discovery of a far greater quantity of available 
material in the vegetable world. Nettles, for instance, 
furnish a fibre of great toughness ; and if this and certain 
other plants of similar character were not imbued with a 
colouring matter difficult to bleach to perfect whiteness, 
there is little doubt that it would be used to a great 
extent in this important manufacture. At present the 
material most in demand is linen and cotton rag, col- 
lected, as is well known, by the rag-and-bone merchants 
from every cottage and mansion in the kingdom. These 
consist of hempen, cotton, or linen fibre, silk and wool 
belonging to the animal kingdom, and being useless for 



246 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

the required purpose. We hardly like to comment upon 
the condition of this raw material as it enters the sack 
or donkey-cart of the rag-collector — it is simply a state 
of unmitigated and apparently hopeless dirt; yet when 
it next appears in public it may be upon the writing- 
table of royalty, in the form of the fairest and most 
spotless notepaper, embossed with the royal arms and 
commanding a royal price — or perhaps it attains to yet 
higher dignity, and having been converted into paper of 
a peculiar crisp and altogether pleasant though flimsy 
quality, and stamped with certain mysterious figures and 
emblems, takes a very important place in the wealth of 
nations, and is worth at least a million times its weight 
of solid gold. 

The three substances mentioned above as the raw 
material of rags possess qualities rendering them admir- 
ably adapted to the requirements of the papermaker. 
The fibres are easily separated from the surrounding 
parts, and are tough, procurable in great quantity, and 
easily bleached. Of these qualities the cotton-spinners 
and manufacturers of woven goods take advantage first 
of all ; and when the productions of the loom are no 
longer capable of the use originally intended, they 
descend by rapid steps from the wardrobe to the kitchen, 
thence probably to the beggar, and often even to the 
dust-bin, from which being rescued by the rag-picker and 



PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 247 



ragamuffin, they find their way to the sheds of the paper- 
makers. 

The first work, and by no means a pleasant one, is to 
separate the heap of rags into the various qualities of 
which it is sure to consist. This is sometimes, but not in- 
variably, done by the rag merchants, who purchase from the 
collectors, and of whom many make large fortunes by 
patient energy and toil in this uninviting sphere of 
labour. The finest linen rags are set aside for the manu- 
facture of the highest qualities of writing-paper. The 
cotton rags make paper suitable for the printer, while 
hempen rags come in for a place as constituents of paper 
of coarser qualities, as brown, whity-brown, and house- 
hold paper of various denominations. But as may be 
supposed, there are many intermediate qualities to be 
obtained by a judicious combination of two or more of 
these materials, which are also adulterated by the addition 
of straw and certain grasses, cotton waste from the 
loom, and various odds and ends which alone would be 
utterly unsuitable, but thus combined are made to lend 
their aid in the manufacture. It is by such admixtures 
and combinations that the manifold qualities of paper 
with which we are familiar are produced, the smooth 
or rough surface depending partly on the nature of these 
combinations of raw material, and partly upon spec'al 
details of manufacture. In some we see a number of 



248 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

equidistant lines running up and down or across the 
surface; in others these are not apparent. Some are 
to a great extent absorbent, as filtering and blotting 
paper ; others so highly polished as to receive ink with 
difficulty, and hence we meet with such terms as 
"absorbent," "blotting," "hot-pressed," "laid," "roau," 
and similar technical names by which manufacturers 
have agreed to designate the various qualities sold. 
Some or all of these terms we shall be called on to explain 
as we pursue our description of the art of paper-making. 

The rags having been duly sorted, are first of all freed 
from mere dust ; but some of this is removed during the 
sorting process, the rags being placed on coarse wire 
frames, which form sieves through which a good deal of 
the coarser dust and dirt falls as they are tossed over by 
the sorters and pickers. This wire-covered table is 
called by the technical name of a " Lettice," probably a 
corruption of the well-known name Lattice. This, how- 
ever, only removes the loose dirt, which forms but a 
small portion of the multifarious defilements which re- 
main upon the rags under the operation. But the next 
process is to place them in the " willowing "- machine, 
the origin of the name being unknown to me. This 
consists of a large cylinder set with teeth, which, re- 
volving at a very great speed close to a concave board 
also set with teeth, tears the rags at once into fragments. 



PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 249 

during which process a great quantity of dirt separates, 
and is got rid of by the falling of the torn fragments on a 
sieve. From this machine the rags are carried to another 
for final dry cleansing. This is a revolving sieve, of which 
one end being fixed at a higher level than the other, the 
rags have a constant tendency to fall towards, and finally 
drop out of, the lower end, which is open. This sieve has 
a sidelong motion as well as a circular one, being shaken 
all the time from side to side for the more effectual 
disintegration of the particles of dirt and dust. This is 
all that can be done by the dry process alone towards 
complete cleansing of the rags; but as yet they are of 
course far from clean, and are now subjected to the pro- 
cess of boiling. This is conducted in boilers which are 
made to revolve during the operation, and into which 
steam at a high pressure can also be admitted, which 
keeps the contents of the boilers in a state of constant 
agitation, and drives the boiling fluid with great force 
among the rags and other materials. A quantity of soda- 
ash or caustic soda is for this washing added to the 
water, in order to get rid of grease and other impurities, 
which it does very effectually. 

After the rags are removed from the hot- water boilers, 
they are placed in washing-pans, where they are subjected 
to thorough rinsing and agitation in clean cold water, 
which removes all trace of the soda-ash. These washing- 



250 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

pans or washing-cylinders are not only made to receive 
and rinse, but also to further cut and subdivide the rags 
by a series of knives within them, and the rags are driven 
against them by the rush of water, which, by a compli- 
cated arrangement, is made to take place with great vio- 
lence, so that the rags, now fast becoming pulp, are dashed 
and driven again and again against these sharp cutters, 
until thorough disintegration of every part has taken 
place, and a uniform fibrous, pulpy mass is produced. 
This now has to be bleached with chloride of lime, and 
is coloured or not as may be desired with various well- 
known earths or mineral colours. The pulp has at this 
stage no consistency. It is evidently full of fibre, but so 
wholly disintegrated by the processes which it has under- 
gone, as to have apparently no cohesive property. But if 
a portion of pulp is now lifted on a strainer or sieve of 
any kind, so as to allow the water to drain off, it will 
become at once felted together and consolidated, and is, 
in point of fact, unsized paper. Formerly the sheets 
were wholly made by hand in this way. A wire deckle 
was taken, which was a square of fine wire gauze with 
a very shallow frame resting on it of the thickness of the 
sheet of paper, and with this a workman dipped up a 
portion of pulp from an open vat, shaking the deckle 
from side to side as it was raised, to get rid of the liquor 
and cause the felting of the pulp. In the coarse old 



PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 251 

papers the wires of the deckle are very plainly impressed, 
giving a very rough surface, which, strangely enough, is 
again coming into fashion, but is to our mind anything 
but agreeable to write upon, and must always have been 
terribly destructive to the point of the pen while the 
latter was made from quills, and so far as we can say 
from a brief experience, equally unsatisfactory with steel 
pens, the points of which, if not broader than usual, are 
liable to stick and hitch in the unequal surface of the 
paper. With finer wires or webbing, in which the threads 
of metal are made to run across as well as lengthwise, to 
form a closer and more compact web, the marks made by 
them in the paper are much less conspicuous. This paper 
is called by the name of " wove ; " the other is designated 
" laid," being blue-laid or cream-laid according to tint. 
The laid papers, although they still show plainly the 
marks of the wire of the deckle, are now made with a 
beautiful surface, sometimes very highly glazed, some- 
times less so, according to the demand for rough or 
smooth. Similarly, the wove papers may be had variously 
finished to suit the fancy. 

We have already stated that hand-made paper is still 
in great demand for various purposes, especially for water- 
colour painting, but by far the greater quantity in the 
market is wholly made by machinery, the principle of 
which is identical with that just described. But in order 



252 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

to provide this material in sheets of any required length, 
as required in wall-papers for decoration, it was seen by 
manufacturers that the hand-deckle must be superseded 
by some kind of continuous web, and as the art of weav- 
ing fine wire into netting and webbing became perfected, 
it was an easy matter to form such a medium into a con- 
tinuous or endless band of any desired width. Such an 
endless band passing over rollers at each end, to which 
motion is imparted by the steam-engine or water-wheel, 
is fitted just in front of the vat in which the pulp is 
contained, and this is caused to flow out in a regular broad 
but thin stream or layer upon the wire, which is at the 
same time given a shaking motion in imitation of that 
imparted by hand to the deckle, and for the same purpose 
of shaking out the water, and causing the felting and 
consolidation of the pulp. By this travelling belt of 
webbing the paper is carried forward from the vat in an 
endless sheet, and made to pass under rollers placed at 
intervals in its course, which by the pressure they impart 
consolidate and dry the pulp more and more in its passage, 
until it assumes the necessary consistency, and is wound 
as a continuous sheet upon a roller at the further end of 
the machine, which looks somewhat like a long table 
fitted up as a series of mangles, or as some kind of wash- 
ing and wringing machine. We have said that in its 
course from the vat the pulp passes under and over 



PAPER-MAKING MACHINES. 253 

certain rollers ; one is called a dandy-roll, and the lines 
on laid paper which is machine made are impressed by its 
means, this roller being of wire arranged to form any 
device which it may be desired to impress upon the sheet, 
and which is well known as the water-mark. This is fre- 
quently the private mark or the name of the manufacturer. 
In addition to this wire dandy-roll are cylinders heated 
by steam, over which the paper is carried on a felt web, 
to assist in drying it rapidly, pressure rollers of polished 
steel giving it a still further finish. We have omitted 
mention of one or two other details of the machine in- 
tended to secure its perfectly pure surface by assisting to 
remove any sand or dirt which the pulp may have brought 
with it, and which must be carefully strained off in order 
to produce the best qualities of paper. For the coarser 
kinds of brown paper this is less requisite, and on inspec- 
tion of some of the kind known as sugar-paper, many 
bits of extraneous substances will be seen upon its surface 
and embedded in its texture. But these coarse unsized 
papers are just the kinds to give an insight into the 
nature of the manufacture, because in them is clearly 
seen the felting of the pulp, the crossing and interlacing 
of the fibres which give it consistence, and it is plain that 
no substance which has not this fibrous texture can be 
used alone, although it may be added in moderate quantity 
to materials which possess this quality without any serious 



254 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

diminution of the tenacity of the paper produced. It is 
thus that straw, which is naturally brittle, owing to the 
abundance of silica which it contains, is made to serve the 
purpose of the paper manufacturer by admixture with 
the linen or cotton rags. 

The paper thus made and dried needs to be sized to a 
greater or less extent, according to the purpose for which 
it is designed. In its unsized condition it is similar to 
blotting-paper, and ink or colour would run if used upon 
it. Size is prepared from the cuttings of leather and 
parchment from glovemakers, bookbinders, and others, 
which contain a quantity of the substance known as 
gelatine, which is similar to isinglass, but of a coarser 
quality. It is, in fact, a light kind of glue. The paper 
is drawn through a vat rilled with this size, which is 
sometimes made to intervene between the drying cylinders, 
so as to complete the paper before it is wound upon the 
rolls, and sometimes is made a separate operation. In 
either case the paper, after passing through the vat, is 
pressed between rollers to squeeze out superfluous size, 
and dried by a current of air or by steam-heated cylinders, 
and very frequently is further smoothed and finished by 
passing finally between other polished rollers, to give extra 
gloss to the surface. A paper manufactory is a regular 
Turkish bath, always full of steam and heated air; for it 
is necessary to dry the paper completely in its passage 



PRINTING-MACHINES. 255 

from one end of the machine to the other, and it is mar- 
vellous to see how rapidly this drying is effected by the 
means employed. At one end is the pulp in a perfectly 
fluid state, at the other is a roll of dry paper, rapidly 
increasing in bulk every minute, and ready to be delivered 
as a continuous sheet, or to be cut up as occasion may 
require into foolscap, notepaper, or other samples 
recognised as standard sizes by the retail dealers. Paper- 
mills used to be erected on the banks of streams and 
rivers, for the sake of obtaining water-power to drive the 
machinery, and were very picturesque and favourite 
subjects for the artist's brush. We remember one of 
this class at Iffley, near Oxford, which is now, I believe, 
burnt down ; but steam has so effectually rivalled water- 
power, as to make locality a secondary object. 

PRINTING-MA CHINES. 

What a terribly laborious, not to say tedious, opera- 
tion writing is, we need hardly, perhaps, tell our boys 
who have struggled at the elements thereof, and idled 
over their exercises. And after the jacket has been 
exchanged for the much-coveted "tails," and the whiskers 
have become established facts, writing, though it may 
have become a comparatively easy work, is still at best 
a very slow and unsatisfactory way of recording one's 



256 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

thoughts for the benefit or the vexation of possible 
readers. When a lad takes up a book, whether of adven- 
ture or of fiction, or of something of a drier and less 
interesting character, he seldom, in all probability, cares 
much about the labour expended upon it before it reached 
his hands. He knows nothing of the many hours of 
patient industry and thought which it cost the writer ; 
the painful diligence and care required in setting up the 
type, letter by letter, especially if the manuscript were 
not of the most legible character, which it seldom is, in 
point of fact, as it is generally written more or less 
hurriedly, and the hand gets cramped and stiff after a 
lengthy spell with the pen. But if in addition to this, 
and the revising and re-revising of the proof sheets, the 
folding and stitching, and binding and packing are 
taken into consideration, it will be evident that the 
production of a book is by no means the simple matter 
that many suppose it to be. 

But what a multiplication of all this toil would result 
if it were necessary to rewrite the whole for every addi- 
tional copy required ! — and yet at one time this was the 
sole method known of producing books. Before the art 
of printing was discovered, every volume was the work 
of the pen alone, and each copy required had to be 
produced by the labour of the professional scribe. 

We read in the Prophecy of Jeremiah, and in some other 



PRINTING-MACHINES, 257 

parts of the Bible, of the " roll of a book;" and the 
sacred law of the Jews, written upon such a roll, is, we 
believe, still in existence, if not in actual use in their 
synagogues. This roll was a long strip of parchment or 
paper, mounted at each end upon a wooden rod, upon 
either of which it could be coiled, so as to- reduce it to 
a small compass, and preserve it from injury. 

The word " volume" which we still use, being derived, 
as our boys will now at any rate guess, from the Latin 
word Volvo, to roll, was applied to each of these, 
and they were usually numbered on the outside, and 
placed upright side by side in the several compartments 
of the public libraries, few persons in those days having 
a private supply of such volumes, owing to the cost of 
their production. But there were not many able to read, for 
there were no Elementary Education Acts in force in the 
villages, although in the later periods of these rolled-up 
volumes schools under the government superintendence 
began to arise in Greece and Rome, and were, very 
probably, also existent in those mysterious and ancient 
nations China and Japan, and perhaps in India also. 
It may also be mentioned here, in reference to educational 
matters, that Ireland, or the Sacred Isle, was a strong- 
hold of learning centuries before England had any pre- 
tensions to be called a nation of arts and sciences. It is 
curious and very interesting to find the traces of civilisa- 

R 



2 5 3 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

tion in these countries which date back into some by- 
gone ages, the very records of which are buried in 
oblivion — traces, and traces only, which hint at knowledge 
and a state of high culture subsequently lost, and only 
now tardily emerging again from the barbarism and 
ignorance which mysteriously overwhelmed it. But so it 
is, and it is more than probable that we are now pain- 
fully and laboriously recovering inventions and processes, 
and knowledge of various kinds, which in those bygone 
ages were universally known. But this subject opens 
out too wide a field for our investigation in these pages, 
and we only speak of it here with the chance of address- 
ing the minds of some of our boys whose proclivities 
may tend in this direction, and in whom we may possibly 
kindle the spark of inquiry which may one day lead 
to valuable investigation and research. It appears, at 
any rate, certain that many nations have retrograded, 
and lost a great amount of knowledge which they once 
possessed. Of mechanical knowledge, for instance, we 
have standing evidence of this loss in the stones of those 
Druidical monuments like Stonehenge or Avebury, or the 
Egyptian pyramids and monoliths so interesting to the 
archaeologist. Of the mode in which these huge stones were 
quarried, moved to their present site, and made to stand 
upright, not only does no reliable record exist, but it is 
questionable whether with our present knowledge of steam- 



PRINTING-MACHINES. 259 

power and various mechanical appliances we could have 
accomplished the task. 

But it is easy to understand how knowledge was lost in 
any age in which the arts of writing and printing were 
unknown. When even manuscript volumes were few, 
and when the material of which they were made was 
perishable, it is plain that there could be very little chance 
of their preservation ; and although we have records in 
more durable material — viz., the inscriptions upon stone 
which have lately occupied so much of the attention of 
savants — the characters are difficult to read, owing to 
their long exposure to the elements, and when deciphered, 
are equally difficult to understand. Whatever of know- 
ledge, therefore, existed in ancient times when these rude 
and unsatisfactory methods prevailed of recording it, our 
own rapid advance in civilisation must date back to the dis- 
covery of the art of printing and paper-making. From 
that time books have multiplied, and their cost has been 
reduced, until it has become a question whether such cheap- 
ness of production is the blessing which at first sight it 
may appear to be. Although it is an unquestionable 
blessing to be able to provide copies of the Holy Scriptures, 
and of many other good books, at a price which is almost 
nominal, this same cheapness introduces thousands of 
immoral and baneful publications, which have become a 
very curse to our nation ; and it is sad to find in this, as 



2 6o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

in other things, that wherever good is present, evil is sure 
to find a place at its side. However, we must not delay 
our special work in order to moralise, although it is 
difficult to speak of the arts of writing and printing with- 
out some allusion to their practical influence upon 
the world at large. So far as can be ascertained, the 
Chinese were the first in this, as in many other inventions 
of importance, and the first experiments were doubtless 
made with wooden blocks, upon the face of which letters 
and other devices were cut so as to stand in relief, 
these being then smeared with ink or colouring matter, 
and impressed upon the paper by hand. It is also 
by no means improbable that another mode was used 
which we now call stencilling, and which is of great use 
where a great number of copies of the same device need to 
be produced in colour upon the surface of walls, ceilings, 
paper, and various other substances. In this case thin 
plates of metal are pierced quite through with the intended 
device, and this is imprinted, not by pressure, but by hold- 
ing the stencil-plate down upon the material, and rubbing 
the colour by means of a short-haired stiff brush on the 
space exposed by the plate. This process is extensively 
used in the arts, and is very likely as old as the inscrip- 
tions on Egyptian mummies. In fact, wherever we find 
'perfect similarity of form repeated very frequently, there 
is good reason to think it was produced in this way. 



PRINTING-MACHINES. 261 

Type-printing is, like wood-engraving, always from raised 
letters ; copper-plate and steel engraving from lines cut 
into the surface by means of the graver. In the first the 
projecting parts receive the ink ; in the latter it goes into 
the lines, and thence is transferred by pressure to the paper. 
The large letters seen in hand-bills are cut in wood blocks. 
The ordinary-sized type for printing books is formed upon 
the end of slips of a metal similar to zinc in appearance, 
called type-metal. 

Printing was first discovered or invented by one Coster, 
at Haarlem, in Holland, in the year 1430, if we except 
the Chinese knowledge of the art, which, though claimed 
to have been centuries prior to Coster's, is of course not 
absolutely reliable as an historical fact. At the same time, 
the statements made by them may possibly be correct, 
for we know very little of the history of their arts and 
manufactures. Coster, however, did not print from 
movable types, but from wooden blocks on which the 
words were cut. This Coster, however, had an apprentice 
called Fust or Faustus, who one day ran off with his 
master's printing apparatus, and established an office of 
his own at Mentz. Movable types, upon which individual 
letters were separately cut, were the invention of Fust's 
own apprentice, Peter Schoeffer, and the letters were first of 
all cut in imitation of handwriting. But the Parisians 
who bought copies of the Bible, or of parts of it printed in 



2 6 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



this way, soon saw that no writer could have made all so 
precisely similar, and with the superstitious feelings of the 
day, accused Fust of sorcery ; and so this Dr. Faustus was 
supposed to be in league with the Evil Spirit, or to be in 
very truth the Evil Spirit himself. The result of this report 
was that Faustus was obliged to reveal his secret, and was 
compelled to make known the system of movable types, 
which laid the foundation of the art as it has ever since 
been practised. Yery rapidly after this printing made 
headway throughout the whole of Europe, and by 1480 
one book at least had been printed in England. At first 
no press was used to take off the impressions, and one 
side only of the sheet was printed, the operation being 
conducted entirely by hand. It was soon found necessary, 
however, to use greater power of pressure than the hand 
could supply, and the screw-press was consequently intro 
duced ; but for each impression required it was necessary 
to give several turns to the screw by means of the lever- 
handle, and this occupied more time than was convenient, 
and the screw had also to be turned several times in the 
contrary direction to raise the platen from the type. The 
screw, moreover, though it would supply the required 
power, did not exert it suddenly, and in the special way 
in which the clearness of the impression was most likely 
to be secured. 
The first great improver of the press, however, Earl 



PRINTING-MACHINES. 263 

Stanhope, did not discard the screw as a means of power, 
but by making it of a quick thread, he gave it the neces- 
sary rapidity of motion, while by the addition of a couple 
of levers the handle was brought closer to the operator, 
and the power was increased. This, moreover, was an iron 
press instead of the wooden ones hitherto used — a great 
improvement, not only in appearance, but also, which is of 
greater moment, in the accuracy attainable in the various 
parts, especially the accurate surface of the platen, and the 
table upon which the type was placed. Earl Stanhope, who 
gave his invention to the public, did a great deal by this 
means to advance the art of printing in England, and his 
press met with great favour at the hands of practical men. 
But, like most other inventions, this was supplanted in 
course of time by presses of greater power, notably by the 
Columbian and Albion presses, in which the arrangement 
of the working parts was greatly improved, and it became 
possible to print pages of greater size, as well as to obtain 
clear impressions of woodcuts. These last need an aston- 
ishing amount of pressure to bring out every line and mark 
clear and sharp, and hitherto success in this particular 
department had been but small. In all these presses the 
power depended either on the screw alone, or in combina- 
tion with an arrangement of levers. One object aimed 
at in this was to reduce the distance through which the 
handle of the press required to be pulled by the workman ; 



264 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

another was to increase the power, and so arrange it that, 
instead of causing only a gradual and uniform descent of 
the platen, it should bring it down gently at first, and 
then suddenly increase the pressure of it on the types. 
This the screw cannot effect, and subsequently to the 
invention of the Columbian a press of great power was 
constructed somewhat upon the principle of the knee- 
joint. We know that in rising from a kneeling to an 
upright position we can, by the act of straightening 
the legs, raise a considerable weight resting upon the 
shoulders. The power thus exercised is but small when 
the knee is much bent, but increases as the ]eg becomes 
straighter. In the press made on this principle the 
joint is not quite so simple as a mere hinge in the centre 
of a bar, but the principle is the same — the rotation of 
a cam fixed to an upright shaft causing two short pins 
to rise from a slanting position into a vertical one, prac- 
tically adding a little to the length of the shaft and so 
pushing down the platen, upon the upper surface of which 
the lower ends of the short pins rest. This is evidently 
only a modification of the knee or toggle joint before 
alluded to, and is a mechanical combination of great power. 
For many years no other means was devised for taking off 
the impression of the types. The latter were inked by 
means of two balls or stuffed cushions faced with leather, 
with short handles attached to the backs. These were 



PRINTING-MACHINES. 265 

covered with printing ink by first smearing the latter 
upon a slab of stone, and rubbing the balls upon it, so as 
to distribute the composition evenly and thinly over the 
surface; the type, set up and securely clamped together in it- 
chase, so as to form one or more pages, was then struck 
with the balls until thoroughly inked ; the forme was then 
run back under the platen to receive the pressure. 

But perhaps it will be as well, whilst speaking of the hand- 
press, to enter a little more into details of its construction. 
We have hitherto been chiefly engaged with that part of 
its mechanism by which the pressure is imparted, and 
have said nothing about the way in which the paper to be 
printed is arranged and held. Travelling on a pair of 
horizontal bars or bearers, one end of which is under the 
screw or lever giving the required pressure, and the other 
on a pair of legs, is a travelling carriage, which is made to 
run to and fro at pleasure by a winch-handle, and a roller 
upon which the carriage rests. This is called the coffin, 
and in the earlier presses, which were made of wood, this 
was like a shallow tray, which was made to contain the 
large flat slab of stone or marble upon which the forme 
was placed after being damped in its frame or chase. 
This stone was, when iron presses were substituted for 
wooden ones, replaced by that metal, which was easily 
planed to a perfectly level surface. Attached to this coffin 
at one end by hinges is a frame of iron covered with a 



266 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

blanket called a tympan, to the extremity of which is 
attached by a second pair of hinges another frame called 
the frisket, with adjustable bands or tapes stretched 
across it, which fall upon the margin of the paper and 
between the columns, and serve to keep them clean. The 
paper being placed upon the blanket of the tympan, the 
frisket is shut down upon it, and both are then turned 
over upon the forme of type, the latter having been 
inked by means of a roller of indiarubber or composition, 
which is first worked on the inking-slab. By means of 
the rounce, or winch-handle and roller, which moves the 
carriage to and fro, the whole is then run under the 
platen, and one pull of the handle by the pressman 
takes off an impression. The carriage or coffin is then 
run back, the tympan and frisket raised, and the printed 
sheet removed. About 300 impressions an hour can be 
struck off on a hand-press of this kind. The paper is 
always used damp, as it yields better in this condition to 
the types. 

Such was, and is, except in large establishments, the 
machine by which the literature of all nations has from 
time to time been printed for many years. Presses of 
this kind were found quite sufficient for the work. But 
when newspapers and periodicals began to multiply and 
increase, and especially the " Times " newspaper, mechan- 
ical ingenuity was turned in this direction, in order to 



PRINTING-MACHINES. 267 

discover a more rapid and effectual method of meeting the 
demands of the public. Even with plenty of hands at 
command, 500 sheets an hour was accomplished only with 
the greatest difficulty, and means were required of at least 
doubling or trebling that number. 

The printing-machine which resulted from the labours 
of inventors, and of which the 'principle has ever since 
remained the same, although the details have been modi- 
fied, consists of a series of rollers of large size mounted 
upon axles in appropriate frames fixed at the edge of a long 
table or frame across which the rollers lie in a horizontal 
directioD. Over and under these the sheets to be 
printed are carried by means of tapes, which lie upon the 
margin and between the columns like the tapes of the 
frisket, and these served the same purpose of keeping the 
paper clean in the places where they fall, and also of con- 
ducting the sheets squarely and accurately upon their 
course. To make the action clear, we may suppose two 
such rollers only, parallel to each other at a short distance 
apart, and revolving in contrary directions, and that tapes 
pass over the first and then underneath the second, and 
that types are set in order upon each cylinder. If a piece 
of paper were laid on the types, and caused by their move- 
ment to travel onward, it would come in contact with the 
types, first on one side as it passed over the first cylinder, 
and then on the other as it passed over the second, taking 



268 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



the impressions of the types on its passage. This was 
the plan first tried, the types being made smaller at one 
end than the other, or wedge-shaped, so that they should 
fit close to each other side by side when fixed upon the 
curved surface of the cylinders. The types were inked by 
revolving in contact with an inking-roller, against which 
they were brought just before the sheet of paper reached 
them. There being a difficulty found in setting the types 
evenly upon a curved surface, the next arrangement made 
was to fix them as usual in a chase, and to place the latter 
upon a level table or bed, which is moved to and fro by 
a rack-and-mangle movement under the cylinders, the 
speed of rotation of which is accurately adjusted to corre- 
spond with that of the type-table. The paper is fixed 
securely by clips upon the cylinder, so that it shall not be 
able to slip from its exact position. There was great 
difficulty experienced at first in communicating to the 
type just as much ink, and no more, as was needed to 
produce a satisfactory result. This was accomplished at 
last by causing a thin film of ink (which is about the 
consistence of treacle) to fall upon a roller of steel from 
the edge of a plate of steel upon which it is spread, which 
plate is accurately ground on the edge so that its distance 
from the roller can be accurately adjusted. From this 
distributing roller the ink is transferred to others, the 
surfaces of which are covered with an elastic composition 



PRINTING-MACHINES. 269 



made of glue and treacle, and under two of these the 
forme of type passes backwards and forwards after each 
impression. There are two of these formes in action at the 
same time in the double machines of Cowper and others, 
at each end of the carriage. In fact, the double machine 
for printing both sides of the sheets at once is merely a 
pair of single machines, each part being in duplicate and 
alternately coming into action. It was considered excellent 
work at first to print 1000 sheets an hour on both sides, 
but even this vast increase over the work attainable by 
the hand-press was found in sufficient. The more news- 
papers people got the more they wanted, and very soon by 
means of improved machines 3000 copies an hour were 
printed, and soon after this was increased to 4000 and 5000, 
which one would have supposed amply sufficient to meet 
every demand. Far from it: the public had an insatiable 
appetite for news of all kinds, and with a quadruple press, 
made for the proprietor of the " Echo " by Messrs. 
Marinoni k Co. of Paris, 20,000 copies of that paper, or 
any other, are produced with ease in an hour beautifully 
printed upon both sides. I believe I am right in stating 
as a recent modification of the printing-machine an 
arrangement for automatic supply of paper from a roll 
placed at one end, which delivers it in one continuous 
sheet. This is not only printed on both sides, but cut 
into single newspapers as it passes onward, saving the 



270 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

original cost of dividing the paper before feeding it into 
the press. 

Such is the steam printing-press as it is now made; 
and considering the rapidity of its action and accuracy of 
its various movements, we cease to wonder that literature 
of all kinds has so vastly increased of late years, while it 
is ever a cause of regret that the " liberty of the press," 
whereby it is freed from almost all State control, should 
ever be abused by the circulation of vicious works, dis- 
graceful to the writers as well as the publishers, though 
unfortunately profitable to both. 



TYPE FOUNDING AND STEREOTYPING. 

This is not a work that is carried on " amongst 
machines," but is nevertheless so closely associated with 
our subject as to demand at least a brief notice in this place. 
Each letter and stop is separately cast in a mould divided 
vertically into two parts. When put together, these form 
a square or oblong channel down the centre the size of a 
letter, and as the channel is enlarged at the upper end to 
facilitate pouring the type-metal, it becomes funnel-shaped 
at the part, producing a similarly enlarged end to the letter 
or type cast in it. This is afterwards broken off, and the 



TYPEF0UND1NG. 271 

end dressed by a kind of plane. A mould of this kind 
therefore will, it is evident, cast a rectangular slip of 
metal, but it will have no letter or device upon it. The 
same mould, however, is in a very ingenious way made to 
serve for casting different letters if their shanks are to be 
nearly of one size, for there is a little power of adjustmen 
also in this particular. Near the bottom of the double mould 
is a slot or channel, into which is slid a slip of copper called 
the matrix, on one side of which — the upper side when it is 
in place — is stamped by means of a punch the letter, or 
stop, or figure which is required. The letter is cut on 
the end of the punch, which is of steel, by suitable tools, 
and it is then hardened. It is afterwards laid on the slip 
of copper, and struck with a hammer, by which the letter 
is indented in the copper. When the metal, therefore, is 
poured into the mould, it takes the form of this indented 
letter, which stands up in relief upon its end, and only 
needs a very slight dressing to make it sharp and clear, 
forming a type for printing. Thus, as any one of these 
copper matrices will slip into the groove in the mould, the 
latter will serve to cast any letter that may be required of 
one size. Of course some letters are wider than others, 
requiring a broader type; but for these the mould is 
adjustable to a certain extent, as the two halves of which 
it is composed will slide sideways on each other, increas 



272 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

ing in one direction, but not in the other, in the thickness 
of the type. 

We have nothing to do in these pages with the actual 
work of printing, our object in these books for boys being 
rather to give the latter a taste for scientific and mechan- 
ical research, and to give them a good " notion " of how 
the manufactures and industries of our great country 
are carried on. We wish them, therefore, having gained 
from these pages some insight into machines, to go and 
inspect them for themselves, and thus perfect their know- 
ledge. A visit of an hour to a printing-office will do more 
to give them a knowledge of the work than a hundred 
additional pages of our present book ; but the latter will 
prepare them for what they are about to see, and render 
everything which they will meet with more easy of com- 
prehension. We must, however, add a few words about 
stereotype work, because this has done so much to multiply 
and cheapen all classes of literature, and the process is 
not difficult to understand or describe. 

Supposing that it is wished to preserve a book in type, 
so that other editions may at any time be printed in all 
parts like the first, it is easy to perceive the cost of having 
all the millions of letters locked up and useless while the 
first edition is being sold. The forme therefore, i.e., the 
frame of type sufficing to print a sheet, which may be two, 



STEREOTYPING. 273 

four, eight, or more pages of the book itself, is laid face 
upwards in a kind of square shallow box or tray, and 
plaster-of-Paris is poured on the face of the type pre- 
viously oiled. When dry and set this is removed, and 
made a mould on which to cast a plate of type-metal 
similar to that of the single letters themselves. If this 
operation is carefully carried out, the result will be a solid 
plate of type precisely similar to that set up in the chase, 
and affording in the press just as good an impression as the 
original. These stereotype plates are not cast, however, as 
thick as the length of a single type, and would not stand 
the requisite pressure by themselves. They are therefore 
backed with wood to bring them to the required thick- 
ness. A large number of such plates must lie stored to 
make up a whole volume of any size; but the expense is 
comparatively small, as, when done with, they are broken 
up to be recast when required. Another plan of making 
stereotype plates, without using plaster-of-Paris, is by fix- 
ing the types as before in the chase, and striking them 
suddenly, face downwards, into a tray of semifluid type- 
metal, just as a seal is struck into melted wax, only for this 
a special apparatus is needed to hold up the chase until the 
proper moment, and then, just as the semifluid type-metal 
is on the point of setting, to dash it vertically down upon 
it. The impression thus made, in what is in a few 
moments a solid block of metal, serves to take the place 



274 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

of the original, and is struck in a similar manner into 
a second tray of semifluid metal. The latter now con- 
sists of raised letters fit to be used in the press. Very 
sharp impressions are taken in this ingenious manner, but 
the mould must be struck at just the proper moment. 





Chapter XVII. 

GLASS-MAKING. 

MONG- the various things made and used every 
day, there are few more interesting in their 
manufacture than articles made of glass ; yet 
it is not every boy — no, nor every boy's parents 
— who has the slightest idea of the processes carried on in 
glass-works. Bottles and glasses of every form are taken 
in hand to be used or broken as the case may be, and 
curiosity is not roused as to how they were manufactured : 
all that is known is that all such articles are extremely 
brittle, much given to come to grief, and not so wonder- 
fully cheap as to make breakage an inconsiderable item 
in the family outlay. 

Probably most of us are acquainted with the old story 
of the accidental discovery of this valuable material by 
some Phoenicians, who, being shipwrecked on the coast 



2 7 6 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

of Tyre, where the plant kali grew abundantly, noticed 
that the ashes of this plant, combining with the sand 
under the heat of the fire used for cooking, fused into 
the substance now called glass. At all events the material 
was known to ancient Egypt, and certainly mentioned 
three hundred years before the time of Christ. Like 
many other things now well known to us, the real origin 
of glass-making is buried in obscurity. No doubt, how- 
ever, can be entertained that, if the story above named 
is true, the glass produced was a comparatively opaque 
body, apparently little likely to become of extensive use 
where perfect transparency might be needed. Neverthe- 
less this union of sand and kali through the agency of 
heat is veritable glass, although the mode of preparing it 
now adopted is somewhat different. 

It is now a very long time since the days of unglazed 
windows. Two hundred years, or nearly so, ago, cottagers, 
and even tolerably well-to-do people, were obliged to be 
content with wooden shutters, except in a few state rooms; 
but soon after, glass became much more common. The 
old window-tax, however, which was not removed till 
1845, hindered the manufacture of glass for admitting 
light to our houses, as the fewer the windows, the less 
there was to pay for this tax. It is not more than thirty 
years since the second-class carriages on the South-West- 
ern had shutters of wood to pull up instead of the glass 



GLASS-MAKING. 277 



windows now universal, even in the third class. There 
can be no question that, so long as an obnoxious tax 
existed, the health of the people suffered considerably, 
because plenty of sunlight is as essential to the human 
body as plenty of fresh air and pure water. Moreover, this 
tax prevented the manufacture of glass from being carried 
on with that energy and spirit which are so essential to 
progress. The result of its removal was quickly felt all 
over the kingdom. Windows multiplied in the houses of 
the great and the cottages of the poor. Hothouses and 
glass structures of all kinds arose, both in private gardens 
and public nurseries ; and probably that grand exhibition 
building in Hyde Park in 1851 would never have been 
erected had not the necessary stimulus been given to the 
glass trade by the repeal of this onerous duty. England 
has no longer anything to dread from foreign competition 
in this material, and, as in most other important manu- 
factures, she is well able to maintain her position. Referring 
to that exhibition, the like of which will probably never 
be seen again, because the novelty of the idea is incapable 
of repetition, we recollect especially the crystal fountain 
erected by Messrs. Osier of Birmingham in the centre of 
the transept. It was reported in the official catalogue 
as 27 feet in perpendicular height, and as containing 
4 tons of pure crystal glass. It had no rival then, 
nor has any similar structure been since made. What 



278 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

has, however, heen done can certainly be done again : 
and probably an order to the same firm, or to Messrs. 
Chance, for a crystal fountain double the size would now 
be executed with speed and facility. What can be done 
in the way of plate-glass windows a stroll through Eegent 
Street and Belgravia suffices to show; and here again, were 
a demand made for still larger sheets, they would most 
certainly be produced to meet it. 

In one detail of the manufacture, however, England 
is not yet in the front rank, although considerable ad- 
vance is being made in that direction from year to year. 
She has not yet been able to rival those magnificent 
windows of stained glass which used to be the glory of 
our abbeys and cathedrals. Certain of the tints cannot 
as yet be reproduced, and although there is plenty of 
colour in a modern stained-glass window, there is too 
often a want of effective blending of tints and tender 
gradation, which is so exquisitely carried out in the oldei 
specimens. 

In addition to stained windows, coloured glass has 
long been used in Venice and elsewhere in the decoration 
of ornamental vases, drinking utensils, and other articles 
of a lighter description. These Venetian manufactures 
were, until a comparatively recent date, wholly un- 
rivalled ; but now the mode of producing them has been 
discovered, or at any rate a process is known and used 



GLASS-MAKING. 279 



which produces very similar results. The colours are 
in many cases arranged side by side in very narrow 
strips, or lines, as they might be more accurately 
described; and these sometimes run straight and some- 
times form spirals running round the cup or vase, or 
are interlaced like fairy network. Beautiful, however, 
as coloured glass is, it has always appeared to the writer 
that a thin beautifully-formed vase or goblet, perfectly 
colourless and transparent, without speck or bubble or 
striae, has an inherent beauty and delicacy which no 
colouring can improve ; and it may be added, that to obtain 
glass in this state of perfection, as needed for optical 
instruments, demands as much care and skill and un- 
remitting attention to detail as the production of variously- 
coloured specimens. In point of fact, even now, in 1876, 
the lenses of Yoigtlander, and one or two other foreign 
makers, are considered superior to any of our home 
productions. Possibly, however, prejudice comes into 
action in this matter ; for though we used at one time 
to import all glass required for first-class optical instru- 
ments, and the names of one or two foreign makers stood 
prominently forward, we have of late years so improved 
in this respect that we now export a considerable quan- 
tity of glass for this very purpose. Probably a trial 
of manufacturing skill in preparing glass lenses would 
now end in perfect equality, as both our own manufac- 



2 8o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

turers and foreigners are able to produce glass of equal 
perfection. 

We must, however, now pass to the actual manu- 
facture. All glass is not alike, and very generally 
different manufacturers turn their attention to the pro- 
duction of different qualities ; for it seldom happens that 
any single establishment makes all kinds indifferently. 
The finest, perhaps, of all is flint glass, which invariably 
finds a place on the tables of the rich, because of its 
high lustre and freedom from imperfections. Then comes 
crown glass, German and English, which is cut up 
in enormous quantities for glazing windows, and for 
horticultural buildings. As a substitute for this, where 
expense is no object, plate glass now fills a very impor- 
tant place. Sitting by a window of crown glass, every 
movement of the head gives apparent motion to the 
landscape, because the glass, though transparent, is full 
of waves and inequalities ; whereas plate glass, from the 
different manner in which it is made, is free from these 
imperfections, and the forms of objects are as clearly 
defined as if there were no such medium interposed. Last 
comes green-bottle glass as the commonest of all, being 
varied in tint and unequal in transparency, but serv- 
ing extremely well for the particular purpose to which it 
is applied. In colour it varies from a pale green to 
deep purple, ordinarily termed black. 



GLASS-MAKING. 28; 



Two ingredients are always present in glass, as stated 
in our introductory remarks, viz., kali, which is commonly 
called potash or soda, and sand. The latter is the generic 
or general name for a variety of substances containing 
silex or flint. We have, for instance, the beautiful white 
or silver sand of Reigate — precious to gardeners; the 
deep-yellow and red sands, used for various household 
purposes ; the salt sand by the sea, of which too often 
masons make use in the formation of mortar when en- 
gaged in building marine residences or villas, and which 
are constantly damp, owing to the affinity of salt for 
water. Alum Bay, in the Isle of Wight, as some of our 
readers know, produces sands of many colours, which 
are sold to visitors in glass bottles — the delight of 
youngsters, to whom the bright tints of varied forms 
representing hill and dale and impossible landscape 
scenery were, and are still, a puzzle and a mystery. When, 
mischievously inclined, they chance (?) to break these 
treasures, they see the mystery solved ; but we will not 
solve it here, and perhaps spoil the pleasure of some of 
our young friends. Now, all these sands are varieties of a 
substance known to geologists as silex. Any one of them 
will make glass, but the greater part are in their natural 
state intimately associated with earthy matters, which if 
admitted render the glass opaque. These can be sepa- 
rated in a great degree by washing. Let our readers try 



282 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

the experiment in this way : Take common house sand, 
and throw a handful into a basin of water ; stir it up well, 
and after allowing it to settle a little, pour off the water, 
which will be quite thick and muddy ; add fresh water 
and repeat the process, and presently pour this also away. 
After a few additions of fresh water, it will be found 
that the muddiness is far less than at first ; and by re- 
peating the process a few times more, the water will 
remain quite clear, and the sand will be quite clean at 
the bottom of the vessel. Pure silex, therefore, does not 
render water turbid, and the muddiness in the early 
stages of this washing process was wholly due to earthy 
impurities. The sand of the seashore gets washed so 
continually by the waters of the ocean, that it is well 
fitted for glass-making. This is also silex, and is 
chiefly made up of minute particles of quartz, pulverised 
by the action of sea and air in the course of many 
centuries. Alum Bay sand is very pure quartz, and can be 
obtained in any quantity, and is consequently much used; 
but other parts of our coasts add their share of this raw 
material. Land carriage of so .heavy a material, indeed, 
regulates the quantity supplied from any particular 
locality, as this is of course a very serious item of 
expense ; and glass-houses near the sea-coast, or situated, 
like London, upon navigable rivers, have a natural advan- 
tage in this respect over rival towns less fortunately 



GLASS-MAKING. 283 



situated. The kali or alkali required is now obtained 
in any quantity from our various chemical works devoted 
to this special manufacture, but was formerly obtained 
by burning wood, barilla, kelp, sea-weed, and other 
vegetables, which naturally contain a considerable quan 
tity of the required substance. The production, however, 
of this material is not within the scope of the present 
chapter to describe. Kali and silex, though the funda- 
mental ingredients in all glass, are never used alone, as 
the product is not sufficiently clear and transparent, but 
oxides of lead and manganese and iron, especially the 
former, are always added, as will be presently explained. 

As the heat required to fuse together the several 
ingredients of glass is very great, furnaces are used of 
solid construction and scientific arrangement, so as to 
produce the highest degree of heat with the least quantity 
of fuel. These furnaces are generally round, with a central 
chimney, and consist of what I may call a series of ovens, 
in each of which stands a melting-pot exposed to the 
fierce heat of the flames which curl around it. The 
substance put into the pots is called "frit." It is simply 
glass in its impure state. The sand and kali are first 
melted together in a furnace, or, as it would be called in 
the process of smelting iron-ore, "roasted," and the 
resulting product is broken up and piled in heaps, and is 
supposed to improve by age. If the sand is very fine, or 



284 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



if ground flints are used, which is now seldom the case, 
there is no necessity for this previous roasting, and the 
ingredients are placed at once in the melting-pots. But 
when this is not the case, the latter are filled from the 
store of frit, and after this has been a long time under 
the action of the intense heat, the impurities rise to the 
top and are skimmed off, leaving the glass beautifully 
clear. The ingredients of flint glass vary with different 
manufacturers, but all use some flux with the sand and 
soda to assist the fusion and improve the quality. 

White sand, redlead, pearl ash, nitre, and oxide of 
manganese or oxide of arsenic, is a very usual composition, 
and these are all intimately mixed before being placed in 
the pots. 

Glass in which there is much lead will melt at a 
comparatively low temperature ; and if any of our young 
readers have studied or played at chemistry, and bent 
tubes of glass by means of a spirit-lamp, they may possibly 
have noticed the lead reduced to the metallic state, and 
shining with a black lustre about the bend. Hard glass 
used in chemical analysis, not having lead in its composition, 
fuses with difficulty, and is employed where the substance 
to be tested has to be exposed to the heat of the blowpipe. 

Oxide of lead does not give any colour to the glass, 
unless used in too large proportion ; but oxide of cobalt, 
iron, manganese, and other metals, will stain the glass ol 



GLASS-MAKING. 285 



any required tint, and these are used in the manufacture 
of coloured glass for the windows of churches and mansions. 
As we always like to add as much as we can to the 
interest of our descriptions of the various great manu- 
factures, we would suggest to our readers the expediency 
of experimenting in a small way in glass-making with a 
lamp, blowpipe, and a few very simple and inexpensive 
materials. The use of the blowpipe is easily acquired, the 
only difficulty being, at first, the keeping up a constant 
and uniform blast of air. The cheeks are to be the spring 
bellows, and not the muscles of the lungs, which are to 
continue their usual quiet and regular action, as if no blow- 
pipe operations were in progress. The cheeks are to be 
distended like those of iEolus, and the blowpipe being 
placed between the lips, the stream of air is to be sent 
through it by the muscles of the cheeks alone , and as the 
supply of air becomes exhausted, the mouth is to be refilled 
from the lungs by a momentary action difficult to describe. 
The blowpipe is so useful for chemical operations, or for 
soldering where neatness is required, that our young 
readers should certainly take the necessary pains to 
acquire the knack. If the cheeks are distended, the blow- 
pipe not being used, it will be found an easy matter to 
breathe as usual through the nose without allowing the 
cavity of the mouth to have any share in the operation. 
It is plain, therefore, that we can isolate the, mouth alto* 



286 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

gether from the lungs as well as the nose, which we do by 
shutting the valves of communication unconsciously. Now 
all we need is to keep up this isolation, except when we de- 
sire to refill the mouth with air, when we momentarily open 
and as quickly close this valve. While, then, the cheeks are 
distended, go on breathing as usual, expiring and inspiring 
through the nose. Now let a little air pass out between 
the lips, still keeping up the regular breathing: you will find 
that for this you are calling into action the muscles of the 
cheeks. As the mouth gets emptied, try and refill it by a 
momentary action of the tongue, which is the valve, against 
the roof of the mouth. It will make a little noise something 
like the word "tup," and the mouth will be full of wind 
instantly. This is the whole secret of blowpipe work, and 
a quarter of an hour's determined practice will suffice to get 
any one accustomed to the management of the breath. 
The lungs must on no account be used to act directly upon 
the blowpipe, but only to fill the distended cheeks. 

Now place upon a bit of pumice-stone — which any 
painter will give you — a little sand and soda (or potash), 
with a small portion of redlead or minium in powder, and 
send upon this mixture a stream of flame from a spirit- 
lamp by means of the blowpipe until the ingredients fuse 
together into a bead of glass. Of course you will need 
a very little of each ingredient, as the whole bead will be 
about the size of a peppercorn or less, according to your 



GLASS-MAKIAG. 287 



power of using the blowpipe and the size of the flame. 
A little turpentine with the spirit of wine (not enough to 
make the lamp smoke) will materially increase the heat 
and help the operation. 

A softer glass may be first experimented on, made by 
fusing borax, which, after boiling up in an eccentric 
fashion,* will settle down into a clear bead; and if this 
is touched with a drop of nitrate of cobalt, or if a little 
morsel of the powdered mineral itself be added, a beauti- 
ful blue bead will be the result. In the same way a 
little rust of iron, or a little of the salt called sulphate of 
iron or green vitriol, or manganese, copper, and other 
substances which contain metallic oxides, may be tried, 
and the colours noted. In these simple experiments the 
whole process of glass-making may be learned in a prac- 
tical manner, and the details will be thoroughly under- 
stood. 

The process of glass-blowing may similarly form a fire- 
side amusement, experiments being made upon the glass 
tubing which may be obtained at the chemist's. But we 
must return now to the manufacture as conducted on a 
large scale in glass-works. 

The pot of glass having become thoroughly melted and 
clear, and the scum removed, which is called sandiver or 
glass-gall, the workman dips into it a tube of iron pre- 
viously made hot, and gathers upon the end as much 



2 88 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

glass as will cling to it, and when this is slightly cooled, he 
repeats the operation until he has as much upon the tube 
as he requires. He then reheats this lump of glass at the 
furnace mouth, and when it is soft enough, allows it to run 
partly off the end by holding the tube in a perpendicular 
position a few seconds. Then by blowing down the same 
the glass swells out like a bladder or soap-bubble into a 
globular form. Probably this will not prove large enough at 
first ; but by holding the glass at the mouth of the furnace 
it becomes soft enough to be still further acted on by the 
breath, and gradually — but quickly — swells to the required 
size. If this requires to be flattened (as, for instance, for 
a glass jar such as pastry-cooks use), it is rolled while 
hot on a flat slab of iron mounted on legs like a low 
table until it takes the necessary form. If, on the other 
hand, the globe is required to be elongated to a pear- 
shape, the blowpipe, which is about 5 feet long, is 
swung round the head, and the centrifugal force acting 
on the softened glass causes it to extend lengthwise. 
There is nothing more marvellous to a looker-on than to 
see how rapidly, by such simple means as these, differently- 
formed articles are produced ; and certainly, to see the 
way in which the workmen toss it about, no one would 
suppose glass to be the fragile article that it is. In 
short, when soft, no material is so easy to work, and 
scarcely any requires for its manufacture tools so 



GLASS-MAKING. 



289 



simple and few in number. If, for instance, the globe 
requires to be spread side wise like fig. 62, a pattern 
given to some decanters, and vessels liable to be upset, 




Fig. 62. 

the workman rests the blowpipe horizontally upon a bar 
of iron, and gives a rotary or twirling motion to it, and 
the form required is instantly assumed. 

While hot, glass is cut with perfect ease by shears or 
scissors ; and it is detached when necessary from the 
blowpipe or pointel (which will be presently spoken of) 
by being touched with a rod of iron wetted at the end. 
The pointel is a solid rod, rather larger at the end than 
the blowpipe. This is dipped in melted glass, so that it 
shall take up a small portion on its extremity. This 
being applied to the globe of glass on the blowpipe, sticks 
to it, and the latter instrument is then detached by a 
touch of the wet rod, and at once replenished for the use 
of the blower, while another workman takes the pointel 



2 9 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

in hand, and proceeds to fashion still further the par- 
tially-finished article at the end of it. "We will suppose, 
first of all, that this is to be formed into a sheet of 
window-glass, which at first sight would appear a very 
unlikely thing to be thus made. The operation, neverthe- 
less, is extremely simple. The man with the pointel holds 
the globe of glass, which is now open at the end where 
the blowpipe was attached, to the mouth of the furnace 
until the glass is soft. Resting it on a horizontal arm 
of iron, he twirls or trundles it rapidly, while an assistant 
with an iron tool opens wider the neck of the globe. 
Continuing this rapid rotary movement, the glass all at 
once seems to fly wide open, or " flashes " into a round 
disc, of which the punt is the centre, and the bull's-eyes, 
as they are called, used sometimes for the windows of 
stables and out-buildings, are the central parts of these 
sheets where the pointel was attached. In cutting up the 
discs for house windows, these parts about the centre 
are cut out, and the sheet divided into halves and quarters, 
such as may be seen packed in wooden crates at any 
glazier's shop. This was at one time the only method 
known of making sheet glass, but it will be readily 
understood, from the very means employed to produce it, 
that it is always wavy, though much less so near the 
outer edge, which formed the circumference, than near the 
bull's eye or punty mark. 



GLASS-MAKING. 291 



The next step in improvement of window-glass was 
as follows: The globe is produced as before, by blowing; 
and then after being reheated is rolled upon the iron slab or 
maver, so as to reduce it to a cylindrical form. To assist 
in this the workman stands on a high stool, and swings 
the glass to and fro, so as to elongate it while hot by its 
own weight, while he still keeps up the blowing. By this 
means the globe is considerably lengthened, and takes a 
pear-shape. An assistant now with a pair of shears cuts 
open the lower end, and also enlarges with this tool the 
hole thus made until it is the size of the largest part of the 
glass. The blower assists the operation by a few dexter- 
ous rotations of the blowpipe until the form assumed is 
that of a cylinder open at one end, but attached to the 
blowpipe at the other, which is still more or less globu- 
lar. A pointel with a cross-piece at the end, which is of 
such length as just to fit the inside of the open end, is 
dipped in melted glass and applied to the cylinder, which 
is itself made hot, and attaches itself to the latter firmly, 
allowing the blowpipe to be detached from the other end 
by wetting the hot glass as previously described. The end 
thus detached is now heated, and opened just like the 
first, so that there is now a cylinder of glass open at 
both ends attached to the pointel. An assistant now, 
while the glass is hot and soft, cuts this cylinder open 
from end to end, and lays it flat by unrolling it on an 



292 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

iron slab, upon which it is laid at once in the annealing- 
oven. Like all operations of the glass-house, this is very 
simple, and to the spectator looks also very easy; but it 
nevertheless requires skill and strength, for glass is a 
heavy substance. 

All glass articles, if merely left to cool, would fly to 
pieces with a touch — and often without, on being exposed 
to change of temperature. They therefore are placed 
in an annealing-oven. This has a fire at one end below 
it, so as to be very hot ; but as it is of a long shape, 
the other end, which is also open, is tolerably cool. The 
articles are put in shallow iron trays, and while still very 
hot, are placed at the furnace end of the oven. The next 
tray introduced pushes the first farther on, and thus 
gradually all reach the cool end ; and after this process 
they will bear all the ordinary usage and changes of 
temperature, so that you may pour boiling water into 
a well - annealed tumbler without breaking it, but a 
thick and badly - annealed glass will crack immedi- 
ately. 

Such is briefly the process. of glass-making, and there 
is no manufacture that surprises a visitor more than this. 
The facility with which in a few moments the material, 
which we only regard as a brittle substance, flashes into 
various forms,, the simplicity of the different operations, the 
Bkill and ease, to say nothing of rapidity, with which the 



GLASS-MAKING. 293 



work is carried on, are indeed marvellous ; and if this 
little volume could have been extended to include details 
of cutting and engraving glass, casting, pinching, and 
stamping it, colouring it to represent precious stones for 
cheap jewellery, with various other particulars all of 
equal interest, our account would have been much more 
complete. We must, however, reserve this and much 
more for a future occasion, as Glass-making almost 
needs a volume to itself. What we have given is little 
more than a faint sketch of the process, but sufficiently 
detailed to justify us in hoping that the result of our 
labours may be an increase of our boys' knowledge and 
extension of their pleasure. The acquirement of know- 
ledge of all kinds is delightful to any veritable young 
mechanic, and all our boys, whether mechanical or not, 
ou ;ht to make themselves acquainted with the manu- 
lactures of their own and other countries ; for it is to 
these industries that we owe our present greatness, and 
by them we may well hope to attain still higher degrees 
of refinement, culture, and civilisation. 



>^ 




Chapter XVIII. 



SCIENTIFIC MACHINES, 




HESE may be said to differ from those already 
described as not being manufacturing machines, 
although even in this respect no hard and fast 
line can be drawn. An electric machine or 
galvanic battery, for instance, though primarily it would 
come under the head of scientific apparatus, becomes a 
manufacturing machine when used for electrotyping and 
electroplating, as the telegraphic apparatus becomes a 
printing-machine when fitted with additional mechanism, 
registering automatically the passage or stoppage of the 
electric current. As the telegraph is now to be found in 
almost all towns, and will probably not be long absent 
even from country villages, we will treat of this first. 
We cannot tell our readers what electricity is, but we may 
compare it to light and heat, in making us conscious of 
its presence by its effect. It may also, like these, be 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 295 

regarded as flowing onward in waves or currents from the 
source which produces it ; and we can, as might be ex- 
pected, deflect it from its course and turn it into another 
direction, or altogether check its progress. Heat and 
electricity we can also accumulate and store up; but 
light, though it is very probably another form of these, 
we cannot as yet by any known means entrap. Our most 
reliable scientific men, or " Scientists," have long regarded 
these three elements as one and the same, under different 
conditions, but they are so subtle in their nature that 
many difficulties exist in proving their identity. This is, 
however, certain, viz., that electricity will produce light and 
heat ; and heat and light will apparently return the com- 
pliment — heat most decidedly will, and light gives tokens 
of so doing, besides being possessed of many qualities 
common to the other two. The universe is perhaps the 
great storehouse of electricity, but there is no reason to 
believe the high-flown statement of advertisers of galvanic 
appliances, who state in big letters in every paper that 
" Electricity is Life." It is quite true that within a 
certain period after death an electric current will cause a 
movement of the limbs, or even renew the action of the 
heart ; but when death has once actually taken place, and 
the soul has quitted its mortal tenement, no amount of 
this subtle fluid will give back the life that has become 
extinct — the fire once out may not be rekindled until the 



296 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

word which first lighted shall renew it. But electricity, 
nevertheless, acts wonderfully and powerfully upon the 
human frame. Exciting the nerves, it gives motion to 
the limb by causing violent spasmodic action of the 
muscles, and if of sufficient power will even paralyse or 
kill the experimentalist. 

Very gently and continuously applied, it is in many 
diseases of the nerves, especially in rheumatism, of great 
service as a curative agent, by stimulating into action 
nerves which have ceased to do their work properly. It 
is not, however, by any means an agent to be trifled with 
or indiscreetly used, and any one of delicate constitution 
might be seriously injured by injudicious experiments 
with the electric fluid. We have said that electricity is 
apparently laid up in the great storehouse of our universe, 
and so it is, but not in a state of tension ; and we may 
explain this by comparing it in its quiescent state to an 
uncoiled powerful spring, or to uncompressed steam or 
air in which enormous power exists but is not sensibly 
apparent. Wind up the spring, or compel a given bulk 
of air or steam to occupy considerably less space, and we 
have a very good representative of electricity in a high 
state of tension, ready to burst forth in the lightning 
flash, capable of rending trees and rocks, and depriving 
instantly of life any animal or human being that may 
intercept its course. Yet that fiery dart, so awful in the 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 297 

intensity of its brightness, so fatal to its victim, can be 
controlled and directed in its course, entrapped, subdued, 
and made the willing servant of mankind. You might 
stand within an iron room, for instance, in the wildest 
storm that has ever burst from heaven, and though a 
hundred flashes fell upon that metal barrier, you would 
be perfectly safe, although the thickness of the shield 
were no more than that of cardboard. We cannot, how- 
ever, here enter very deeply into the theoretical part of 
our subject, and it must suffice, for the present, that we 
can conduct, or deflect, or check the flow of the electric 
current at pleasure. We need not go to the clouds for 
our supply of the subtle fluid, for although, perhaps, it 
would be incorrect to say that we can create it, there is 
not a doubt about our capability of producing it, or at 
any rate of giving it such a degree of tension as will 
render it an active agent in our hands. We can do this 
in two ways — first, by friction of certain easily obtainable 
substances, notably glass, and resin, gutta-percha, and 
vulcanite; but as these three are so far identical that 
they are exuded as gums from trees, except that the 
latter is also compounded with sulphur (itself an exuda- 
tion from the earth), we may still divide the substances 
from which electricity may be produced by friction into 
vitreous or glassy, and resinous, as it is a convenient 
division to make. 



298 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

By rubbing dry glass or dry resin we can, under certain 
conditions of insulation, make the electrical state of such 
substances visible by a spark which they respectively give 
off, accompanied by a snap ; and after this spark has 
been emitted, the tension of our electrical spring ceases, 
and whatever electricity still remains is quiescent and 
inactive. But frictional electricity is not practically well 
adapted for telegraphic purposes, for which we require 
rather a continuous stream of tolerably high tension, and 
not a sudden discharge like the flash of lightning, or the 
instantaneous release of a tightly - coiled spring. We 
require, if I may so term it, pressure, and not a blow. 
The electricity is usually called galvanic, from the name 
of its earliest discoverer, and seems to depend upon 
chemical, rather than mechanical, facts. If we place a 
piece of copper and a piece of zinc in a solution capable 
of exerting a powerful action on the one and not on the 
other, an electric current is at once set up ; and if the two 
are connected at the top by a wire, which is a good con- 
ductor of the fluid, the latter will flow from the zinc 
along the wire to the copper, and thence to the zinc 
again. With these simple elements, salt-and-water will 
be sufficiently active as an exciting solution, and is for 
our young friends much better than sulphuric acid and 
water, which, though it produces a more powerful action 
on the zinc, is also ready to do the same on the clothes 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 2 9 q 

of the operator, the result being a decided shock to those 
who have to pay the piper. Salt-and-water, too, being 
less active, will continue to excite the " battery," as it is 
called, for a much longer period, and powerfully enough 
for the purpose of experiment. But how can we tell that 
any electricity is passing? Probably our readers know 
well, and some, no doubt, possess pocket-compasses, some 
of which are made to hang as charms from the watch- 
chain. Let them stand their little battery on the table, 
in such a position that the wire (which should be of 
copper, and soldered to the zinc and copper plates, so that 
one is at each end) shall stand north and south. Then 
let them bring under its centre the compass, whose 
needle, of course, also points in the same direction, and 
let them note the result. The needle will point east and 
west, standing at right angles to the wire. This is 
always the effect produced by a current of electricity 
passing round a magnetic needle, and if the battery is 
very powerful, the wire between its ends might be of 
nearly any length, but the same effect would be produced 
on any number of compass-needles placed in its course. 
This is the electric telegraph in its most simple form, 
but we need a power of controlling the motion of the 
needle before it can be made to serve our purpose. Now, 
while the needles are standing at right angles to the wire, 
or as nearly so as the strength of the current will make 



3 oo AMONGST MA CHINES. 



them, let us snip the wire in half with a pair of nippers. 
Don't take your sister's scissors unless you've no better 
tool at hand ! Instantly the current ceases, and the 
needles stand north and south as before. Bring the ends of 
the cut wire together again, and see ! the needles go back 
again. Here you observe we have the elements, at all 
wents, of a very beautiful machine ; we need only agree 
to make any letter we wish to express by moving the 
needle once, twice, thrice, or more times, and we can 
spell out words — slowly, it is true, but certainly. Now, 
if we give the wire a turn round a compass at one end 
of a room, and carry it on, and give it a turn round a 
second at the other end of the room, and arrange that the 
cut ends of the wire shall be within easy reach of one of us. 
then the other may go and watch the other needle, and 
as both will make similar movements, they will represent 
telegraphs at London and York; only, you see, in the 
case supposed, one must do all the talking, and the other 
all the reading, for he can't answer back, which would, I 
daresay, be very aggravating to most boys. Moreover, 
our alphabet would be terribly puzzling, and take no end 
of counting. We can remedy this, however, for there is a 
way of making a magnetised needle move to right or left 
at pleasure, which will give us two motions instead of one, 
and make a shorter number of oscillations answer. We 
must also, for practical purposes, contrive to get greater 



SCIENTIFIC MACHINES. 301 

power, and it is more convenient to let the needle hang 
upright before us than to have it in a horizontal position, 
so that we have to look down upon it. Whichever way 
it hangs, however, the principle is the same, and if we 
cause a current of electricity to traverse a wire which is 
coiled round it, such needle will be acted upon by it. It 
is important to note, however, two particulars relative to 
the effect produced upon a magnetised needle by an 
electric current. 

If this current passes from north to south above the 
needle, the north pole of the latter will turn to the east. 
If the same current is caused to pass below it, but in the 
same direction, i.e., from north to south, the needle will 
be deflected in the opposite direction. Now, if instead of 
this current being carried once across the path of the 
needle by a single wire, we coil the wire many times 
round it, so as to multiply the power, it is plain that the 
effect produced will be many times greater, and as, in 
addition, the current will thus pass above and below at 
the same time, but in contrary directions, the needle will 
be doubly influenced. But at the same time that the 
electric current tends to move the needle out of its normal 
position, the magnetism of the earth tends to draw it back 
again to stand north and south as usual; hence we have 
a certain resistance to contend against, and we should 
gain power by getting rid of it if possible. We manage 



3 o2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

to do so in electric telegraphs by very simple means, viz., 
by what is called an astatic needle. This is simply a 
pair of needles on one common axle, or suspended to the 
same support, the north pole of one being over the south 
pole of the other. As the earth's magnetic action thus 
ceases to act upon the needles, it might be supposed that 
the influence of the electric current would also be lost, as 
the tendency of the one or other pole to turn east or west, 
instead of north or south, would seem to be done away; 
but such is not found to be the case. Although the poles 
of the needle are neutralised, it will still tend under the 
action of the electric current to stand at right angles to 
its former position, and whether it will move one end (we 
can call it the north or the marked end) to right or left, 
will depend upon which direction the current travels in 
round the coils of wire ; for we can send it either way at 
pleasure, as will be evident on consideration. Let us, for 
the present, suppose our simple battery to be in use as 
before, with the wire cut so that we have one end attached 
to the zinc and the other to the copper. We will also 
suppose that we have our needles, and the coils surround 
ing them, attached to some sort of stand, with the ends 
of the wires projecting. Now, the current of electricity 
flows out from the battery at the copper end, and passing 
through the wire enters the battery at the zinc end. It 
is plain, therefore, that we can apply either end of the coil 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 303 

to either end of the battery at pleasure, and that thus we 
can make the current enter the coil and traverse it from 
right to left, or from left to right, and this will cause the 
marked end of the needle to move right or left accordingly. 
Of course, when we come to the practical working and 
construction of the telegraph, some means must be devised 
for instantaneously altering in this way the direction of 
the current, for it would take too long to be obliged to do 
this by constantly shifting, by hand, the four ends of the 
wires; this is effected by what is called a commutator 
(from muto, to change), and the simplest form, perhaps, 
for merely experimental purposes is as follows : It is to 
be remembered that we want metallic communication — 
the current will not pass through wood, bone, ivory, 
sealing-wax, gutta-percha, &c. &c. The plan here given 
is from a small elementary work by Angell, but there 
being no diagram of it in that book, I have been obliged 
with some little difficulty to make a drawing from the 
description there given. A (fig. 63) is a mahogany board, 
which is, together with the . battery, drawn as it would 
appear to any one looking down upon it from above. The 
needle and coil would also thus be horizontal, although 
in practice it stands vertical. F F are two slips of hard 
brass, half an inch wide and 3 inches long ; G, a T- 
shaped piece of the same width. These do not lie flat, 
but are bent so as to spring up about half an inch from 



3°4 



AMONGST MACHINES. 



the board, and the long strips remain in contact with the 
cross head of the T-piece, unless purposely pressed down. 
E is the battery, here represented of an old pattern, 
consisting of a number of cells full of sulphuric acid and 




Fig. 63. 

water, acting upon a series of alternate zinc and copper 
plates ; and the last in the series at one end is zinc, and 
its fellow at the other is copper. The current, multiplied 
greatly in power by proceeding from many plates, instead 
of a single pair, leaves as before at the copper, which forms 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 305 

one end, and returns to the other after traversing the wire 
and coil. At K K are two studs, being the ends of a 
long bent staple of stout wire put in from below, the ends 
standing up a little distance, so that either piece F F, if 
pressed down, would rest upon a stud. A wire soldered to 
this staple goes to the binding screw C at one end of the 
battery, while a second wire in contact with G goes to the 
other end. This should rather be represented, like the 
staple, as being under the board, and would be soldered 
to the screw by which the piece G is fastened to the 
board. Similar wires, attached to the screws which 
hold the long strips G F, are, by means of binding 
screws, placed in metallic connection with the ends of 
the coil. By this instrument the current flowing from 0, 
the copper end of the battery, can be made to traverse the 
coil in either direction, according as E or F are pressed 
down upon the studs below them. 

Let us press down the right-hand spring F, and trace 
the course of the electric current. Beginning at C, it will 
pass along to the right-hand stud on which the spring 
is now resting, thence along this spring to the binding 
screw, and round the coils. Then, leaving the latter at 
the other end, it will pass to the other spring F, thence 
to G (because not being pressed down, it is in contact 
with G, but not with its own stud), thence by the screw 
in G and wire attached to D, the zinc end of the battery. 



306 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

To make the needle move in the other direction we must 
reverse the course of the current thus : Taking off the 
finger, the right-hand spring F will rise, and touch the 
T-piece as before. We now press the other spring down 
upon its stud. The current will then pass from the 
battery to this stud — along its spring — round the coil in 
the other direction, down the right spring to the T-piece, 
and, by its screw and wire, to the zinc as before. In its 
course it will have deflected the needle. Thus we can 
instantaneously cause the latter to oscillate as we please, 
for the action is perfectly instantaneous, as the current 
would go round our globe in one-tenth of a second. We 
now can very much simplify our alphabet. We have the 
movement of the needle's point to the right to signify one 
letter, to the left for another, twice to the right and once 
to the left for a third, twice to the left and once to the 
right for a fourth, and so on. In practice, however, the 
single needle is now generally replaced by two hanging side 
by side, each with a coil of its own, thus increasing very 
considerably our power of conversation by signs, because 
with two needles half the oscillations only will be 
necessary. Even with these it may be easily seen that 
a good deal of practice is needed to enable messages to be 
sent and read with speed and facility. Such is the 
principle of a needle telegraph, the detail only being 
modified, as we shall proceed to relate. 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 307 

We must now say a word or two more about the battery, 
and then proceed with a description of the manner in 
which the line-wires are practically arranged. We have 
shown that a plate of copper and another of zinc, placed 
together in a solution acting more upon the one than 
upon the other, generates a current of electricity. During 
this process the zinc, which is called the positive element, 
is gradually dissolved, and gives off from its surface a 
quantity of hydrogen gas, which you will see, if, as I 
hope, you make experiments upon the subject, rising in 
copious bubbles through the liquid, which, if of sulphuric 
or muriatic acid and water, appears boiling, so rapidly is 
the gas disengaged. A good deal of this is waste of 
power and of material, and the zinc is usually amalga- 
mated with mercury, by being rubbed with that substance 
while wet with acid and water. The surface will be 
entirely coated, if the operation is carefully carried out, 
and will be perfectly bright, and, in this state, will 
not be attacked so fiercely, but will give out a 
sufficient quantity of electricity, and the action will con- 
tinue for a much longer period. But in a battery of this 
kind it has been found that another drawback exists. 
Bubbles of hydrogen cover the copper plate and do not 
readily leave its surface ; a deposit of zinc also takes place 
upon it, whereby its action is first impaired, and ultimately 
ceases entirely. If this is the case in a single cell, it ia 



3 o8 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

evident that it will be so in any number; and this defect 
for some time gave great trouble, although it was usual 
to make telegraph batteries in the form of a long box 
with divisions, in each of which was a zinc and a copper 
element. Sulphuric acid and water was used as the 
exciting fluid, and very often this was poured upon sand, 
with which the cells were filled, by which there was less 
danger that the solution would get upset or wasted, while 
at the same time it was considered that this material 
exercised a certain degree of influence in keeping clean 
the surfaces of the two metals. 

Our present papers not being devoted to the theory of 
Voltaic electricity, we cannot enter at any great length 
into the laws of electric currents ; but upon one point 
bearing specially upon the batteries used for telegraphic 
purposes we must of necessity say a few words. If the 
zinc and copper plates are respectively of large size, they 
will give off electricity in great quantity. It will not, 
however, provide exactly the power required. It is, to 
use our old type, a strong spring uncoiled. We coil it by 
multiplying the number of cells, connecting the zinc of 
one with the copper of the next ; and in telegraphy, while 
the oblong wooden troughs of many cells were used, it 
was usual, for long distances, to connect these together 
in a similar way— the last cell of one with the first cell 
of the next, and so on. If quantity, however, is required, 



SCIENTIFIC MACHINES. 300 

two such batteries can be used in a different way, by con- 
necting all the coppers and all the zincs together as one, 
so as practically to compose two large plates of the metals. 
These will act in this case like a single pair. But Pro 
fessor Daniell, whose name is an honoured one among 
electricians, set to work to find a substitute for the zinc-and- 
copper arrangement, owing to the defects of these already 
stated. He therefore had to consider two points. First, 
the deposition of zinc upon the copper ; and secondly, the 
drawback caused by the bubbles of hydrogen resting upon 
the plate. Of the amalgamation of the zinc we have 
already spoken, and the next step was to enclose this 
metal in a porous case with its own exciting fluid, either 
sulphuric acid and water, or sulphate of zinc in the form 
of a concentrated solution ; and to place the copper in an 
outer cell, which was filled with a solution of sulphate of 
copper. This being decomposed by the electric current, 
constantly deposited a fresh coating of the metal upon 
the copper plate, thereby renewing its surface and using 
up the hydrogen that would otherwise have rendered the 
battery defective. 

To keep up a supply of copper deposit, crystals of the 
sulphate of copper salt are laid upon a perforated shelf, 
so as to touch the solution and gradually dissolve, being 
replenished when necessary. The porous diaphragm was 
originally of sailcloth, but brown paper or bladder was 



3 1 o AMONGST MA CHINES. 

also used. These have now given way to plaster-of- Paris, 
which is formed into the shape required, and answers the 
desired purpose admirably. Of course it matters little 
whether the cell is round, to receive a cast rod, or flat, to 
contain a plate of zinc, and the copper cell may surround 
it, as is often the arrangement, or the contrary plan may 
be used. For electric telegraphs the form preferred is that 
of a trough about 2 feet long, divided into compartments 
by water-tight divisions, and subdivided by plaster-of- 
Paris partitions. The plates of zinc and copper are joined 
in pairs by a copper band at the top, which being bent 
over in the form of an arch, brings the copper and zinc 
plates face to face in the cells, but with a porous diaphragm 
between them. The solutions are, as before, sulphuric acid 
and sulphate of copper. From what has already been 
stated, it will be understood that at each telegraph station 
there is needed a battery, and also a coil or coils with 
their respective dial-plates. After the current has passed 
through the instrument at the operator's station it does 
not return at once to the other pole of his battery, but 
goes on to the coil at the distant station, and thus deflects 
the needle at that place in the same way as it deflects it at 
the sending station, so that it is read letter by letter by the 
one who is despatching the message, and also instantan- 
eously by him who is intended to receive it. It may also 
evidently deflect needles similarly fitted with coils at any 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 3 1 1 

number of intermediate stations. Having passed the last 
coil in the series, the current used to be brought back by 
a return wire to the other pole of the sender's battery. 

What a splendid discovery it was ! and how rapidly it 
has become a practical medium of business, and also of 
private correspondence ! Borne now by a wire cable across 
the Atlantic Ocean, the electric fluid, once toyed with only 
in the lecture-room, now bears message after message with 
lightning speed from one continent to the other. What- 
ever is taking place in one country is instantly reported 
in all directions, and the news upon which perhaps depends 
a nation's destiny is read by the excited throngs thousands 
of miles away. Before the sound of the last cannon-shot 
has died away, the victory or the defeat is known in every 
land; and indeed, as some of our young readers will under- 
stand, a telegraphic report is announced in one country 
before the event has actually occurred, owing to the 
difference of time between eastern and western lands. 
When the telegraph was first invented by Wheatstone upon 
the foregoing principle, several wires appeared to be 
necessary to convey messages to different parts, and in 
all cases a return wire was used to carry back the current 
to the battery of the sender. But it turned out on further 
experiment that this was unnecessary, as the earth itself 
was ready to be man's slave, and to transmit the current 
unaided ; hence one wire was immediately done away 



3 1 2 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

with. The negative pole of the sender's battery to which 
the current has to return is simply placed in metallic 
connection with the earth by a wire with a plate of copper 
attached to it, or very often it is simply led into a pit 
with coke in it, or attached to the gas or water pipes. It 
seems not to be of great importance how this is carried 
out, so long as the wire is capable of readily conducting 
the current to a bed of damp earth. The negative wires 
of all the batteries are similarly treated, and according to 
the theory commonly accepted, the electric current finds 
its way back through the earth as readily as by means of 
a metal conductor ; but don't forget, boys, to experiment 
on this, for there are yet secrets to be evolved, or we are 
mistaken. 

But for our present purpose we may consider the con- 
nection between the poles of the battery to be completed 
by what is called the earth circuit, the effect being the 
same as if the current passed from one terminal to the 
other through a connecting wire. The transmitting in- 
struments in use are not like that illustrated, as the 
motion requires rapidity, which could not be attained in 
this form of apparatus. The coil is placed, as stated, 
upright, so that it appears something like the hand of a 
clock. The outer or reading needle, however, is not of 
metal but of ivory, and is simply fixed to the end of an 
axis, which carries the astatic needles within the coil. 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 313 

The working parts are concealed inside the case of the 
instrument, and on the outside is merely the ivory needle, 
prevented from oscillating too far to the right and left 
by little ivory studs ; and the handle is below, by which 
the commutator is worked. An alphabet or a code of 
signals is engraved upon the dial- face to assist the 
memory. The handle alluded to is attached to the end 
of a horizontal wooden roller, capped at each end with 
brass, and there are slips of brass let into it lengthwise, 
which reach to these caps. Two brass springs rise on 
each side resting against the roller, so that by turning the 
latter a little distance to right or left, these springs can 
be made to rest on the brass slips, completing metallic 
connection with the battery, or upon the intermediate 
wooden part which breaks the connection. By moving 
the handle to the right, one slip comes into action, and a 
movement to the left does the same with the other, the 
needles moving right or left accordingly. After what has 
been said, the instrument will be, probably, understood 
without a special drawing. 

There is yet another system of electro - telegraphy 
dependent upon quite a different principle. In this the 
message is not conveyed by the oscillations of a needle 
under the influence of an electric current, but by the 
action of an electro - magnet upon certain clock -like 
mechanism. This principle we must endeavour to explain, 



3 1 4 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



as it is applicable to other than telegraphic purposes, and 
if it were not for the drawback of costliness in use, would 
very likely supersede steam, or at any rate hold an 
important place beside it as a motive agent. It was 
known very early to experimenters upon Voltaic electricity, 
that if a sewing-needle were laid within the coils of a 
wire attached to a battery, it would become magnetised, as 
also if a charge from a Leyden jar wire passed through 
it. But it was subsequently discovered that if a bar of 
soft iron were made the centre or core of such a coil, it 
would retain its magnetism only so long as a current 
from the battery continued, but that the moment con- 
nection with the latter ceased, the iron would return to 
its normal unmagnetised condition. 

Suppose, therefore, a bar of iron fixed vertically upon 
a stand, and surrounded by a closely -wound coil of 
insulated wire. If a keeper, i.e., another bit of iron, were 
suspended a short distance over its upper end by a light 
spring, this would be attracted every time that connection 
was made with the battery, and when the connection 
ceased, the spring would raise it to its former position. 
A short bar, 2 or 3 inches long, suffices for experiment, 
and any little bit of iron may be fixed to the end of 
a piece of watch-spring, so as to keep it one-sixteenth 
of an inch from the end of the bar. The wire, we have 
said, must be insulated, i.e., covered with a layer of non- 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 3 1 5 

conducting material, generally silk or cotton wound round 
it by machinery, but sometimes gutta-percha. The reason 
is evident, for if the coils of wire touched the iron and 
also each other, they would simply act as one plate, 
becoming a mere solid conductor. But if the coils are 
insulated, we can carry a current round about the iron as 
many times as we please, thus multiplying greatly the 
effect of the electric current. Suppose now — to make 
the matter as simple as possible — that every time the 
keeper descends upon the magnet, it represents a letter 
or sign, as with the oscillations of the needle. It is plain 
we can devise a code of signals as before, or by simple 
mechanism we can make each movement of the keeper 
act upon a needle or clock -hand, as in the telegraph 
described. Thus we can use this electro-magnetic power 
as easily as the other. This, however, is not the actual 
way in which the telegraphic apparatus has been arranged, 
but we shall revert to this presently. The first use made 
of electro-magnets in respect to the telegraph was the 
sounding of a bell as a signal to the distant station to 
be ready to receive a message. As soon as the bell was 
heard, the man at the receiving instrument replied by 
moving the needle once to the left, to show the sender 
that he was prepared to attend. These bells are not so 
general as they used to be, however, for they made a 
deal of noise in an office, where perhaps there were a 



3 1 6 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

dozen or more instruments; and, generally speaking, 
a signal is announced as coming, by the sender moving 
both handles to and fro with great rapidity, which, 
causing the needles at the distant instrument to click 
incessantly against the ivory studs on each side of them, 
suffices to attract attention. The electric bell, however, 
has recently been introduced into both hotels and private 
houses, doing away with cranks and fittings, which so 
continually get out of order that the change is found to 
be a considerable benefit. A comparatively small con- 
stant or Daniell battery in the cellar will continue months 
in action without attention, and is easily replenished when 
desired. In the telegraph instruments the bells were 
usually on the top of a small case containing clockwork, 
above the instrument. This was wound up, and the 
electro-magnet did no more than release a catch for a 
few moments, allowing the striking apparatus .to run 
down as in an ordinary timepiece. When, however, 
instead of many strokes of the hammer, only one is 
required to be made, no clockwork is necessary, as the 
sudden attraction of the keeper can be used directly, 
being made to act upon the hammer itself. The distance, 
however, through which attraction is exercised between 
the magnet and keeper is very small, and the power of 
attraction diminishes as the square of the distance; i.e., if 
an attractive force of one pound is exercised upon a keeper 



SCIENTIFIC MA CHINES. 3 1 7 

when it is one-twentieth of an inch from the end of the 
magnet, it is but a quarter of a pound at the distance of 
one-tenth of an inch. This is the drawback to the use of 
such a power in practical machinery. It is a great power, 
but it acts only so close to its source as to be unavailable, 
and it is also far more costly than steam, owing to the rapid 
consumption of the metal under the action of the exciting 
liquid. Whether some other source of electricity may be 
one day discovered, rendering its application less costly, 
we cannot say ; but there is here again something to 
occupy the attention of our boys, and they can indeed 
experiment largely upon Yoltaic electricity long before 
their jackets and knickerbockers have developed into 
"tails" and those unpicturesque articles which disfigure 
our legs. 




Chapter %\%. 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 




jf§?ND now, boys, we must say a few words about 
the great human machine, whose value tran- 
scends all which have been described in 
these pages. And of this there are moving 
parts very similar in arrangement to some of those 
which we have set before you. But when we come to 
the more intricate details, and especially to the secret 
of the motive power which drives the machine, we find a 
limit to our knowledge, and confess at once that we know 
very little about it. For there comes a time when this 
great and mysteriously - made machine ceases to do its 
work ; frequently there appears, on examination, nothing 
particular the matter. Every joint, and bone, and 
muscle is in its proper place, and if we could but re- 
kindle the fire which has suddenly gone out, all would 
work as before. But that fire of life is extinguished, 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 319 

and human hand avails not to relight it. And for want of 
it the machine has become useless for worldly work, and 
we lay it in the grave to become gradually dissolved 
into its component particles, and then a few centuries 
may pass by, and no visible trace can be found. Our 
machine has become dust — as truly dust as the coffin of 
wood in which we laid it — as truly dust as the iron, and 
the brass, and the wood of which any other machine is 
made, will become, after a similar interval ; so that to 
the turner and his lathe, to the weaver and his loom, to 
the carpenter and his tools, there is but one end, and that 
end is dust. Theoretically, the motive power of the 
machine is centred in the brain, and thence is carried 
(just as we might convey the electric current by a 
metallic conductor) down the spinal marrow, which is a 
continuance of the brain substance, to the nerves, which 
radiate from it like white threads to every part of the 
human frame. These nerves, however, have their own 
centres of energy, reminding us again of supplementary 
batteries, sometimes added in a circuit to supply addi- 
tional power. These are called, technically, nervous 
" ganglia," and are arranged where it is required to con- 
centrate nervous force. There is such at the pit of the 
stomach, called the solar plexus, and a sudden blow upon 
this has caused instant death, and is always dangerous. 
If the nerve connection is severed, as, for instance, by any 



320 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

injury to the spinal marrow, the parts below it are so far 
dead that they cease to be under the control of the will, 
and then we call them paralysed. As long, however, as 
the connection with the brain is perfect, and the nerves, 
or human telegraph wires, are in sound and serviceable 
condition, a message is instantly conveyed from the brain 
to any part of the body, and motion is the result, so that 
the will and the resultant action are almost simultaneous. 
This is, however, comprehensible only as electricity is 
comprehensible. We find, experimentally, a power exist- 
ent, and that under certain laws it can be made 
subservient to our desires; but what the power is, how 
the human mind acts upon the will, and the will upon 
the nervous system, this is the mystery we cannot 
fathom — the mystery of life. And treating of life, we 
allude here to physical or animal life generally, because 
the animal world displays the same mysterious connection 
between the will and the brain, the spinal marrow and 
nerves and muscles, as is found in ourselves. The horse 
wills to go forward, and it does so, or it wills to jib and 
kick off its rider, and there is no doubt about that will 
inducing the energetic action of the necessary muscles. 
Many of our boys have had " croppers " in this way. 

Passing from the motive power to the mechanical 
structure of the body, we shall find, first of all,- a strong 
but light framework, which we call the skeleton, to 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 321 

which are attached, by wonderfully-arranged joints, the 
various limbs or movable levers whereby the work of the 
machine is carried on. The main difference between this 
frame and that which we arrange ourselves is that it is 
nowhere absolutely rigid, being, as it were, built up in 
sections, each of which is attached to its neighbour 
by cartilage, which may be compared to very stiff india- 
rubber. Even single bones, which at first sight may 
appear to be composed of but one piece, will be found, on 
examination, to have the enlarged ends, which form the 
actual hinges of the joints, attached to the shank by this 
substance, which, being partially dissolved by long boil- 
ing, is frequently seen to have become separated, espe- 
cially in such young animals as lambs and calves. In 
old carcasses much of this substance ossifies or becomes 
absolute bone, losing, of course, its pliability. It is 
partly from this cause that you boys are able to beat 
your elders at various athletic exercises. There is more 
pliability in your cartilage, and your joints are more 
flexible ; but then, on the other hand, your muscles are 
weaker, and your brain — well, we won't say anything 
about that, it is active enough for } r our requirements, and 
has wisdom enough for your years, and we should not 
like old heads on young shoulders, nor that you should 
begin very early in life to experience the various worries 
which assail your elders. We are content to be the " old 



322 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

fogies" now, and some day old fogyism will get hold of 
you, and your levers and cords, and system of joints and 
pulleys will begin to fail as ours are now doing. So 
make the most of your boyhood, for it is the most precious 
time of life, if only it is used well and honourably as it 
ought to be. 

There are altogether about 252 bones in the human 
skeleton, so that the wonder is not that rude shocks 
occasionally dislocate joints, but that we are able to do so 
much, and to endure so many vicissitudes, without putting 
the whole machine into irreparable disorder. 

Suppose that we break any part of a machine of 
wood or metal, we either glue, or solder, or weld the 
parts together ; and very often 'tis at best a clumsy 
job, and the united parts are weak. But if we break a 
bone of the great living machine, nature will make a 
splendid job of mending it, if only we can keep the 
broken ends together immovably for a few weeks. First 
of all, inflammation of the part ensues, giving pain, but 
originating the cure. Then there exudes from the broken 
ends a fluid called lymph, which thickens into cartilage, 
and then ossifies into bone, and the place where fracture 
occurred is actually stronger than before. This, at any 
rate, is a theory of the curative process commonly 
received, but it is only right to state that some doubt has 
been cast upon it, because it is found that pure bone, 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 323 

without its natural sheath or thin covering of periosteum, 
as it is called, will not then unite, so that it is quite 
possible that the gelatine or cartilage is provided from 
this sheath and not from the broken ends of the bone. 
At all events, cartilage is first formed, and then, by a 
deposition of lime, becomes osseous or bony. 

Here again, you see, boys, the mysterious work of life, 
the vis medicatrix natures, or natural tendency of nature 
to repair injury. I fancy we might leave a broken bit of 
wood or metal a precious long time in splinters without 
such reparative process taking place ; but nature provides 
a regular system of welding broken bones, and the points 
of union are often less visible than those of the smith's 
welding. 

But we will now pass on to the consideration of the 
strictly -mechanical arrangements of the human body. 
Let us consider the arm first of all, as it is practically 
hardest worked of all our members. Here fig. 64 is its 
skeleton. In the hand is a weight B to be lifted. JSTow, 
we find here a lever of the third order, and you will 
remember that in this case there is loss of power but 
gain of speed. It would scarcely be convenient to be 
obliged to move our hand slowly ; we want it generally 
to move through a good deal of space in double quick 
time, and to do so with moderate force. The elbow- 
joint is the fulcrum upon which the forearm, from the 



3 24 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

elbow to the hand, moves, and the latter is the rigid bar 
or lever. The power is obtained from the contraction of 
the muscles, one end of which is inserted below and 
the other above the joint. C might be a doll's arm of 
the usual Anglo-Dutch elegance of form, with a band of 
indiarubber to represent one of the muscles by which the 




Fig. 64. ^he bones of the forearm are badly drawn, but will suffice for the present pur- 
pose of explaining their leverage and action of the muscles.) 

forearm and hand are raised. The hand, you see, will 
describe .a large arc, while the point at which the india- 
rubber is fixed makes a small one, and this point being 
so near the fulcrum, shows us that not much power is 
obtainable, the strength of our indiarubber spring being 
more than its total amount, because of its slanting posi- 
tion. In the real human arm a number of muscles act 
at once, and these are attached to the arm at various 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 325 

parts, and to the bones of the trunk about the shoulder, 
before and behind. Their power of contraction is very 
great, and when you young rascals bend the arm to give 
a blow to another boy who has " cheeked " you, you see 
a great lump rise near your shoulder, which is the 
heaping up of a big muscle called the biceps, caused by 
its contraction. 

All our limbs, as well as the head itself, are moved in 
this way by muscles inserted at various points of the 
skeleton, enabling us to perform all the mechanical 
functions necessary to life. A muscle is composed of 
fleshy fibres, which are combined at the ends into a 
stringy or wiry substance called tendon. Where there 
is not much of the fleshy part, you may see these tendons 
looking almost like small bones — as, for instance, at the 
back of the hand, where they radiate from a common 
centre at the wrist to the knuckles. And at your heel is 
a very good example of a strong tendon, called tench 
Achillis, which, soon becoming very fleshy above, forms 
the calf of the leg, of which well-developed youngsters 
are so proud. 

So much for our human levers and sources of mechani- 
cal power. But in certain cases the direction of motion 
needs to be changed, while the muscles remain in their 
normal position ; and we come to just such an arrange- 
ment as that of the pulley and cord, where a downward 



326 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

pull at one end is changed into an upward one at the 
other. We have one special instance of this in the eye. 
There is a muscle attached to it on one side, which, soon 
after leaving it, passes through a cartilaginous loop, and 
then returns at an acute angle to its former direction, 
and is ultimately attached to a bone of the skull. This 
muscle is called the superior oblique, and is the most 
perfect instance of the system of motion by a cord and 
pulley to be found in the human frame. The actual 
pulley turning on its axis is indeed wanting, but its place 
is well supplied by the ring of smoothly-polished cartilage. 
While speaking of muscular action, I may once again 
call attention to the difference between the machinery 
devised by ourselves and the great human machine, that 
is so fearfully and wonderfully made that its divine 
creation is manifest in every part. In those which we 
construct, we need to take hold of the rope or lever, or to 
attach it to some extraneous motive power to give it 
action ; but in man the will suffices as the prime mover, 
and at once the muscle contracts, and the eye is moved, 
or the hand lifted, or the leg advanced, and all is done 
without noise through the vital agency which, for want 
of a better name, we call " nerve force." 

Let us advance a step farther. In all machines compris- 
ing parts which move upon each other, such parts require 
constant lubrication, and to prevent undue friction they are 



THE GREA TEST MA CHINE OF ALL. 327 

made as smooth as possible. This is precisely the case in the 
human machine. Wherever there is a joint, the rubbing 
surfaces are coated with cartilage, presenting a highly - 
polished aspect, as may be seen at any time by separating 
the bones of a leg of mutton ; and over this surface 
there is diffused an oil vulgarly called joint oil, but 
which medical men term synovial fluid, secreted by the 
membranes surrounding the joint. This is supplied in 
moderate quantities only, just sufficing for perfect lubri- 
cation of the parts ; but if the latter are injured, there is 
generally either an increase in quantity or the quality is 
impaired. The liquor is contained in what is called a 
bursal sac, as we might keep a supply of oil for a shaft 
in an oil-cup, and this sac often becomes inflamed and 
enlarged, forming a swelling at the knee-joint known as 
housemaid's knee, because it is often caused by kneeling 
to scour floors. In this, as in other cases, the increased 
supply of synovial fluid is due to the curative process by 
which nature throws out additional protection to the 
joint itself, by increasing the lubricating fluid, and thus 
forming a natural cushion. Eventually, however, serious 
injury results, causing sometimes a stiff joint. 

The human machine I have so far compared with 
those of wood and metal, as if the latter were rather the 
pattern of the former ; but, as we all know, fingers were 
not only made before forks, but the bodies of animals 



328 AMONGST MA CHINES. 



and men preceded by any number of centuries the 
mechanical contrivances by which labour is abridged. 
Indeed, if we go forth into the natural world, we shall 
there find many a valuable model set before us if we use 
our eyes and minds to discover them. There is, for 
instance, a necessity sometimes for a joint that will 
permit ready motion of the adjacent parts in all direc- 
tions, but which shall, nevertheless, be close and compact. 
We find our model here in the shoulder-joint, and we 
apply it under the descriptive title of a " ball-and- 
socket" joint. There is, first of all, at one end of tho 
bone which forms the shoulder-blade, a shallow cup, 
lined, as before, with cartilage, and supplied with synovial 
fluid. Into this fits with great accuracy a spherical knob, 
also covered with cartilage and as smooth as polished 
ivory. To keep the two in contact there is a strong 
cartilage, and the joint is encased in powerful muscles; so 
that, although the arm may readily be swung about in 
all directions, the ball will not leave the socket unless 
the application of undue force wrenches it out, causing 
the head to slip over the edge of its cup and to teal 
some of the ligaments. This happens in dislocation, 
when we say that the shoulder-blade is out of joint. In 
the ball-and-socket joint used in mechanics, the principle 
of this is carried out ; but instead of the tendons and 
ligaments, the cup is made to embrace a larger portioD 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 329 

of the ball, so that the latter cannot escape, or, as in 
pendent gas-chandeliers, the cup is placed with its 
bottom part downwards, and its centre is cut out. The 
pipe to which the ball or hemispherical part is attached 
is then dropped through this central hole, so that the 
curved parts rest closely together. 

In many centuries no substance was discovered at all 
comparable to the human skin. This, under the micro- 
eeooe, is seen to consist of cells in several layers ; but 
what chiefly concerns us here is that it is an elastic, soft, 
and yielding substance — waterproof, yet full of pores 
through which the perspiration passed freely, far more 
freely than is generally supposed, it being calculated that 
no less than two or three pounds weight of water are 
daily exuded through the skin, and that we have not less 
than twenty-eight miles of tubing through which it 
passes. This, at any rate, shows the necessity of keep- 
ing the pores open by daily ablution, " cold tumbies " 
being happily much in vogue for the purpose; but pro- 
bably an occasional Turkish bath, which results in rivers 
of perspiration, is necessary to maintain the skin in its 
natural fine condition of elasticity. Now there are many 
purposes in mechanics and in the departments of natural 
science in which just such an elastic substance is 
required, and for which human skins are certainly not 
available, though, as an experiment, very excellent leather 



33c AMONGST MA CHINES. 

has been made from this substance. A careful search 
discovered first of all a tree called Ficus elastica, the 
indiarubber-tree, the juice of which could be run into 
moulds, and when dry, was found at ordinary tempera- 
tures to possess the above qualities. But, unfortunately, 
in cold weather, indiarubber becomes almost as hard as 
board, and its elasticity then disappears; otherwise, 
especially when worked into very thin sheets, it is not at 
all unlike skin, and is applicable to many purposes in the 
arts. But an accident discovered the fact, that in con- 
junction with sulphur stirred into it when in a melted 
state, indiarubber became equally pliable at all tempera- 
tures, and was thence known as vulcanised. 

Now this substance is perhaps the most completely 
comparable to human skin of all materials known to 
manufacturers, i.e., the skin of a living body. It is 
waterproof, pliable and elastic at all ordinary tempera- 
tures, can be worked thick or thin, and is also very 
durable. Gigantic strides have been made since its 
discovery in various directions, as it is just the substance 
that was required for various purposes of trade ; and it 
has proved applicable far beyond what was originally 
intended to be its use. The first, or almost the first 
application of it, was the construction of goloshes or 
overshoes, which were orginally made by pouring liquid 
caoutchouc, or indiarubber, over a stockiDg filled with 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OE ALL. 33 r 

sand, and this was first done at the spot where the tree 
grows, by allowing the juice or gum to flow at once over 
this primitive mould. But these overshoes were very 
expensive, generally as hard as board, so that until they 
were laid by the fire to warm thoroughly, it was impossible 
to put a foot inside them. As to shape ! dandy boys 
of the present day, we can imagine the scorn and deri- 
sion which would be shown could we present such 
to you to wear ! Talk about beetle-crushers, boats, 
portmanteaus — these were veritable canoes, and yet, for 
want of a good substitute, they found a ready sale. But 
when the vulcanised rubber was discovered, which can 
be used as above, or in combination with elastic cloth and 
other materials, it was at once seen how beautifully 
applicable it was to the manufacture of overshoes. And 
all at once these came by thousands into the market 
from America, of moderate price, good shape, and of all 
sizes. Indiarubber canoes hid their diminished faces, 
and were seen no more — being sentenced to the knife 
of the executioner, who cut them in pieces for the use of 
artists and schoolboys for erasing pencil-marks. 

Any trade list of vulcanised rubber goods will show 
to what a pitch this trade has grown. Almost every 
article of daily use is formed of it, for it is found that 
by properly arranging the proportions of the sulphur and 
gum, it may be made hard as wood, or soft as the softest 



332 AMONGST MA CHINES. 

leather. Hence we can buy elastic rings to hold bundles 
of letters ; elastic cord to be devoted to the window- 
smashing contrivance called a catapult ; polished combs 
to arrange the flowing locks of youth, or the long hair 
(all her own of course) of the demoiselle ; buckets for 
water, hose for fire-engines, and ten thousand articles 
tedious to name. So we may have taken a hint from the 
outer covering of the human frame ; but our cherished 
skins are safe, and though perhaps we may one day be 
cremated, if it should become the fashion, we need not 
fear that we shall first be decorticated to provide elastic 
membrane, or questionable leather, for the use of 
survivors. 

Recurring again to the mechanism of the human frame, 
we have the arch and the dome beautifully shown us in 
the skull, the hollow bones, and also in the ribs and pelvis. 
The structure of the bones, moreover, teaches us the impor- 
tant lesson of how to combine lightness and strength ; 
and from these, and perhaps also from the hollow stocks 
of reeds and corn and other plants, we first learned to cast 
hollow iron pillars, and, if necessary, to strengthen these 
towards the ends by sharp ridges or ribs, just as we find 
many of the human bones strengthened in the neighbour- 
hood of the joints. Then, again, in our veins and arteries 
we have perfect models of elastic tubing for the convey- 
ance of fluids. In the heart and windpipe we find valves 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 333 

of perfect design and action. Nor is there any part of 
the human frame which has not, or may not give to the 
machinist valuable hints in the art of construction, if he 
will but make use of eye and mind in studying God's 
handiwork. And although we call this human machine 
greatest and noblest of all, because it is the abode of that 
mysterious something which we denominate the "soul," 
yet nature — the great universe which we see around us — 
is also such another glorious machine, of equal perfection 
in the arrangement of all its details, and in their adapt- 
ability to the various purposes for which they were de- 
signed. Here we have mechanism and architecture 
wherever we turn the eye ; and it is in the volume of 
nature that the student must ever search to discover 
each principle of these and kindred sciences, as well as 
their practical application. 

The oak in its giant strength, with buttressed trunk, 
to which each bough is attached, with its spreading base, 
" shouldered" as it might be called, at the point of junc- 
tion, calculated to resist the strains brought upon every 
part of it by the winter's storms — the stately poplar, 
tapering gracefully from base to summit, yielding but 
resisting, " stooping to conquer " — the waving corn in 
the harvest-fields, with slender hollow stem supporting its 
golden ears, heavy with their autumn gifts to thankless 
man, — these, and such as these, teach us to combine 



334 AMONGST MA CHINES, 

lightness with stability, pliability with strength. Every 
scientific fact, it must be remembered, has been gathered 
from careful observation of nature in her various moods, 
and upon these is based the mechanical theory of con- 
struction, whether of machinery or of buildings. And 
not only so, but nature, in all probability, suggested in 
turn to man the great majority of those arts and appli- 
ances whereby he has surrounded himself with creature 
comforts. 

The spider and silkworm have given him his earliest 
lessons in spinning and combining a number of yarns to 
make a stronger rope or a coarser thread. The caterpillar 
has shown him how, by such threads crossed and recrossed, 
he may weave the fabrics of the loom. The tailor-bird 
has suggested the use of needle and thread to unite such 
fabrics to supply him with clothing. 

The bee, in her economical use of the wax wherewith 
she raises her many-chambered palace, has taught us 
how to produce the greatest results with the least possible 
material. The beaver as a hydraulic engineer, the rabbit 
and the fox as constructors of tunnels and underground 
abodes, have originated, in all probability, the idea of 
penetrating hill and mountain with railways and canals, 
and in nearly every instance of new inventions and new 
discoveries the models will be found in nature's storehouse. 
But we cannot here carry the subject into further detail. 



THE GREATEST MACHINE OF ALL. 335 

We gladly leave our young readers the interesting task 
of hunting out for themselves the mechanical examples 
which our universe furnishes to instruct her zealous 
students, and we do so the more readily, that in these days 
of infidelity they may recognise the stamp of the Creatoi 
in all His works, and be led to a deeper reverence and 
love to Him who made all these things, permitting man 
to use them for his help and comfort, until admitted to 
a still more glorious universe, where no spot of sin shall 
sully its perfections or hide its everlasting glories. 



TEE END. 



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